PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : RAIDERS : Shell Coy on Remaining Question Marks

Will the Raiders start with new starters? Will the unit that takes the field Monday night at Candlestick Park to face the San Francisco 49ers in the season opener be different from the first team of the exhibition season?

Perhaps.

Asked about it Monday, Coach Art Shell said: “We don’t play until a week from today. It’s too early to tell.”

At least too early to tell the 49ers.

The question marks are at tailback, fullback and left defensive end.

When the Raiders acquired veterans Harvey Williams and Tom Rathman, it was assumed that they would be filling starting roles.

But in the Raider scheme, the starters from the previous season must be beaten out of their jobs. And tailback Ty Montgomery and fullback Napoleon McCallum, running with the first unit all summer as they did at the end of last season, didn’t lose much, if any, ground to the newcomers.

As a result of his exhibition best of 53 yards on 10 carries in last Saturday’s game, Montgomery nearly pulled even with Williams. They each rushed 27 times in exhibition games, Williams gaining 124 yards and Montgomery 118.

Fullback is a different situation. Although McCallum, with 11 carries for 41 yards, outgained Rathman, who had seven carries for 20 yards, a strong argument can be made for Rathman.

At least for Monday night.

The 49ers made it plain to Rathman this summer that after eight years and two Super Bowls, he was no longer guaranteed a job.

Think he wants revenge?

“I don’t have that attitude at all,” Rathman said. “I feel like the move they made was a good move for them and it was a good move for me.”

Still, the emotion Rathman would take onto the field where he played so well for so long might make a difference in what figures to be a tight game.

*

At left defensive end, Scott Davis has finally made the starting lineup.

The one, that is, as indicated by the depth chart.

Davis spent all summer trying to recover the form that had made him a starter in every Raider game of 1990 and ’91. Two years of retirement followed.

He shook off the rust this summer on the second unit while Aundray Bruce started. Saturday, Davis finally started, at a tackle spot in place of injured Chester McGlockton.

But with McGlockton expected back this week, Davis is listed as the starter at left defensive end with Bruce as the backup.