NAPA, Calif. -- Raiders defensive back DJ Hayden knows his NFL career might already be at a crossroads after just three seasons.That point was driven home emphatically in the offseason when the team made multiple changes to the secondary, bringing in veteran Sean Smith to pair with David Amerson as the starting cornerbacks.The Raiders also declined to pick up the fifth-year option on Haydens contract, meaning that -- barring a change from Oaklands front office -- the 12th overall pick in the 2013 draft will go into the offseason next year as a free agent.Not that Hayden seems bothered by it one way or the other.The 26-year-old reported to training camp leaner and more muscular as he transitions from playing on the outside to defending the slot receiver.The move has gone smoothly so far, too, as Hayden intercepted a pass from quarterback Matt McGloin and returned it for a touchdown on Saturday then made a nice play to break up a deep throw from Derek Carr on Sunday.I feel like Im more confident, Hayden said Sunday. Its my fourth year, its about time I made some plays. I want to score some touchdowns. Pretty confident I will.Hayden has struggled to live up to expectations after becoming the first first-round pick by Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie.Hayden came out of college having survived a near-fatal heart injury, was plagued by injuries that limited him to 18 games over his first two seasons and has just three interceptions.Last season, Hayden started 13 games, played in all 16 and had a career-best 70 tackles.Now hes moving inside after spending time there last season as the Raiders nickel back while Smith and Amerson start at cornerback.Inside, you have to kind of come at it at a different approach because (receivers have) got so much field to work with, Hayden said. But its pretty much the same thing. `Thats your guy, cover him. I like it, I like it a lot.The Raiders held their first fully padded practice of training camp Sunday and Hayden stood out with his play to break up the pass from Carr.A small step, to be sure, but a signficant one for Hayden.His confidence is really high, Raiders second-year defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. He loves what hes doing. We have competition across the board and hes a competitor so hes fitting right in and competing every day.The challenge for Hayden isnt so much about transitioning to a new position. Its in convincing the coaching staff -- and perhaps other teams around the NFL -- that he can play, and play well, no matter where he lines up.We have a lot of film, a lot of evaluating but hes a really good football player and he really wants to be good, Norton said. Theres really nothing stopping him. Hes a guy that we really see as a guy thats really going to excel this year.Hayden has been one of the few constants in a secondary that has undergone sweeping changes almost every year since McKenzie was hired as general manager in 2012. One of the biggest changes this year has been adjusting to the absence of safety Charles Woodson, who retired last year after 17 NFL seasons.You cant replace Charles Woodson, but we can pick up the slack, Hayden said. Were going to have to because hes not here anymore. Its next man up.Game notes Kelechi Osemele was held out of practice for undisclosed reasons, but coach Jack Del Rio said he expects the veteran left guard to be back on Monday. ... McGloin and undrafted rookie wide receiver Johnny Holton made the plays of the day when they connected on a pair of long touchdown passes.---AP NFL websites: http://pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL Air Max Plus Nz Cheap . 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That plan didnt go so well early. Services boxer Duryodhan Singh Negi has not been troubled in the ring so far at the Senior Boxing nationals. On Monday in Guwahati, he breezed into the welterweight (69kg) finals and assured himself of a silver medal with a comfortable unanimous decision against Prayag Chauhan of Delhi.Assam hasnt always been this welcoming for Negi. On the night of December 22 eight years ago, things were far less pleasant. Back then, Negi wasnt in a brightly lit air-conditioned boxing hall, but in the chilly Eastern Garo foothills under a near-moonless night. Negi wasnt skipping around the canvas in ring shoes, but stepping as silently as he could through dense jungle terrain in army combat boots. Instead of boxing gloves, he had a loaded AK-47 rifle in his hands.Negi was part of a unit of 4th Kumaon that was conducting a patrol in Assams Goalpara district. They were on the lookout for members of the terrorist organization ULFA. Negi remembers they had been on alert for nearly three days. We were sleeping in the open while others kept watch, he says. I remember how cold it was and that I had had perhaps one hour of sleep in that time. Our eyes were red and we were very tired. But we got a word from an informer that the terrorists were nearby, so we kept going.Negi remembers the moment his commanding officer saw a flashlight -- by his estimate 30-40 metres away. There was no reason for it to be there, he says. When we heard a Kalashnikov being cocked, we knew had found them.Negi describes the ambush his team set up. Two of our soldiers flanked them and fired from their sides, he says. I had to provide suppressive fire from the front. There was a major firefight for about an hour. I couldnt see anything but since we knew they were above us in the mountain, I just kept firing into where we first saw the torch.The next morning, the troops recovered the bodies of two militants and captured another who was injured.Negi shrugs at the tale. Thats what you had to do if you were a sipahi (soldier), he says.Indeed thats what Negi was. Unlike the other members of the Services team, he didnt join the armed forces under the sports quota but rather as a regular jawan.Most of the boxers from the services team are boys who we brought in through the sports quota. For a jawan to rise through the ranks and reach this level in the nationals is incredibly hard. it is just raw talent,?Brigadier Murali Raja, former president of the Indian boxing federation, said about Negi.The eldest son of a farmer in Uttarakhands Pithoragarh district, Negi enlisted in the army in 2004, when he was 19. He had no knowledge of boxing then. Im from a poor family, he says. I joined the army to escape poverty. Sports was never a priority for us.Negis first encounter with the ring was far from pleasant. In 2006, when his unit was stationed in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, Negi was told to box in an inter-battalion tournament. They didnt give me the option of saying no, he says. They told me it was an order. I was very scared. There was a temple near the boxing ring and I remember praying there: God, dont let someone break my nose or put my eye out.Negis nose wasnt fractured and after one month of basic coaching, he was selected to fight the inter-battalion tournament, which he won. Everyone else was even worse than I was, he jokes. The tournament would be the last bit of training for Negi for four years as he followed his unit to Assam.There was no time to box, he says. We would be constantly following up information from our sources and then patrolling or setting up ambushes. Most of the time, we wouldnt get anything but every once in a while we eengaged the enemy.ddddddddddddIt was only in 2010 -- when 4th Kumaon were posted out of Assam to Nagrota in Jammu & Kashmir -- that Negi got a chance to resume his hitherto brief fling with boxing. As someone who was believed to have boxing experience owing to his stint four years before, Negi was picked up by his unit and told to prepare for the army nationals. Despite no practice of any discernable standard, Negi kept winning. He eventually picked up a silver medal, losing to a boxer who had joined the army under the sports quota.The result was enough for him to be chosen to train at the Army Sports Institute in Pune. And at the ripe old age of 27, Negi began his career as a full-time boxer.He couldnt have chosen a worse time. The Indian Amateur Boxing Federation would be banned the very same year. Negi would continue to practice in Pune but had few opportunities to show his abilities. He would make the most of his chances. At the 2014 boxing nationals in Nagpur -- which were subsequently termed unsanctioned -- Negi won the gold in the light welterweight (64kg) division. He subsequently participated in the 2015 Presidents Cup in Indonesia, where he lost in the quarterfinals.Negi isnt the most skillful boxer and, at 171 cm, doesnt have the best reach. But observers say he more than makes up for these shortcomings with his high work rate. While his conditioning during his time in the army certainly helped, Negi credits his endurance to his growing up in the Himalayan mountains around Pithoragarh.Having assured himself of a silver medal at the senior boxing nationals, Negi will be part of the national camp once more. Theres no doubt in his mind that boxing is far easier than soldiering.Its a lot easier to be a boxer than to be an army jawan, he says. You can take risks in boxing. You can let yourself be open up to punches if you think that you have a chance to hit back as well. But when you are on a mission, you dont want to put yourself in danger. Negis experience in combat has also made him something of a hero among the other members of the camp as well as his teammates in the Services team. Nearly all of them [with the exception of heavyweight Satish Kumar] have joined the army through the sports quota, he says. Many of them have never even fired a gun. So they keep asking me to tell them stories of my time as a soldier.Boxing has benefitted him too, letting him rise through the ranks faster than he would have as an enlisted man. By winning the nationals in 2014, I was given a promotion to havildar (sergeant), he says. That would have taken me 15 years, but I got the promotion in 11 years.And while he is grateful for the chance to box, Negi admits he sometimes misses his life as an infantryman. I still speak to the soldiers from my unit, he says. They tell me stories about their missions and I miss the excitement of it.For the moment though, Negi says his goal is to break out in the welterweight division. It wont be easy. At 31, Negi is easily among the older active boxers in India. Yet he is confident he can make it -- if not for himself, then for the honour of his unit.Fourth Kumaon has a lot of firsts, he says. [Major Somnath Sharma of] our unit won the first Param Vir Chakra. We were also the first to capture Siachin Glacier [Operation Meghdoot in 1984] and we did it without any specialized equipment. Now I want to make the unit proud through my boxing. If I win a medal at the Commonwealth or Asian Games, that will also be a big achievement for them. ' ' '