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How impressed are you with how Dennis Allen has risen in the ranks?

“I think that anybody that’s worked with DA as I have as a coach or anybody who’s played for DA as a player in ours or Denver’s system isn’t surprised at all. He's smart, has great people skills, is detail-oriented (and) truly understands the game. He was a heck of a player at Texas A&M. He has a good feel for talent. He was a DB but worked with the defensive line also in two different places, in Atlanta and with us here his first two years. He understands offenses and how to beat protections and he’s a good teacher. I would think that DA is implementing a lot of things out in Oakland that he learned from Sean (Payton) and this program. He’s got a lot of patience. He has poise. He’s going to do whatever he has to do to win with the talent level available to him at the time. It was a matter of time before he became a head coach. He’s in the perfect situation there. He’s with Reggie McKenzie, who’s a former Raider who then worked in the Green Bay Packer organization under Ron Wolf and under Al Davis. The personnel philosophy isn’t going to change much under Reggie. He and DA are just really two good guys that put their egos aside and put the team first.”

Has their offense changed without Darren McFadden available to play?

“They do what they’re doing. It’s kind of like what we would do with next man up. Their run game is a zone-oriented run game. There’s a lot of carryover from when Tom Cable was there. It’s a lot like Denver’s that we faced three weeks ago. It’s a lot of like Philadelphia’s that we faced two weeks ago, so they’re going to do what they’re going to do. They’re going to throw a few more reverses in there because they have speed at the wide receiver position, but it’s a zone blocking team. I would expect that they would try to run the ball a little bit more this week and try to get the run game going and back in their offense.”

Why is Drew Brees able to extend plays so well?

“I think he has a great offensive line in front of him. Drew’s got great pocket awareness and he gets a great pre-snap read of potential people coming at him. He has the ability to get us out of a bad play based on the pre-snap looks that he gets and I think there are a lot of things. I think that’s why guys like Drew, (Tom) Brady and Peyton (Manning) as long as he’s played, Jim Kelly, Dan Marino, Steve Young, Joe Montana, all those guys have great pocket awareness and the ability to get their teams out of bad plays. Those guys also had and have good offensive lines.”

Did Corey White need surgery?

“No.”

Is Darren Sproles’ hand wrapped?

“He had a glove on today, so I didn’t make him take the glove off and see under the glove. We did not hit today. We were in shells only, so he caught the ball well. He ran great. I was very encouraged with his work today.”

Read more: Joe Vitt Said Darren Sproles Returned to Practice, Team Focusing on Oakland Raiders

Related article: Dennis Allen, Carson Palmer Discuss Hosting New Orleans Saints on Sunday

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Darren Sproles (hand) was upgraded to full participation in Thursday's practice.

Interim coach Joe Vitt said he was "very, very encouraged" with Sproles' progress after Wednesday's practice. At this point, we have no reason to believe Sproles will not be active for Week 11 at Oakland. The passing-down specialist was averaging just over nine touches per game before the injury. He returns to a revamped backfield with Mark Ingram and Chris Ivory playing bigger roles.

Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune