The Raiders have released the troubled pass rusher Aldon Smith, and his former coach is wishing he had done more to help.
Former Raiders coach Jack Del Rio, who coached Smith for nine games before Smith was suspended in 2015, says that the league’s rules kept the Raiders from giving Smith the kind of structure that Smith would have benefited from having.
“Never liked ‘league rules’ that eliminate the ability of teams to offer Aldon and others in his situation the structure they so desperately need,” Del Rio wrote on Twitter, in response to PFT’s tweet about Smith being released.
Del Rio did not elaborate on what kinds of help he felt the Raiders could have given Smith, but the NFL bars suspended players not just from the field in games but also from practices and team meetings. Perhaps Smith could have benefited from being around the Raiders just to have something productive to do with his time, even if he remained suspended and ineligible to play in games.