Dave Ziegler Had Difficult Task Joining the Raiders

Even though the Las Vegas Raiders made the playoffs for the first time since the 2016 season when Dave Ziegler and Josh McDaniels came last offseason, some brokenness still needed to be mended after a trying 2021 season.

Not only was it Ziegler's job to build a team, but he also had the heavy responsibility of participating in that mending process in his first offseason as a general manager.

Ziegler explained what part of his and McDaniels' approach was when they first came on board in January of 2022 when he joined the "Bussin' With The Boys Podcast."

“I think there was a need organizationally for, like, to quickly build some stability. So there was this need for Josh and I, I think, specifically, to work on creating a lot of relationships," Ziegler said. "And like investing -- again, going back to the relationship piece -- but investing personal time and getting to know people. And what we didn’t do when we went in there, is we didn’t go in there and drop a bomb and fire everybody. Because that does happen, right? A new coach and a new GM come by, and they just wipe out everybody.

"We tried to really take the time and get to know a lot of the people who had been there. Because a lot of the people had been there not only four or five years, there’s people that have been there 15, 20 years. And so we went in there and got to know a lot of the people, and what we figured out is there were a lot of good people there. And so we invested and kept a lot of those people. And so I think the one thing was, the best way to say it is we had to earn their trust and respect as much as much as they needed to earn ours. But I think that was needed because of all the upheaval and things like that.”

The 2023 NFL Draft will go from April 27-29 and be held at Union Station in Kansas City, Mo. The NFL Scouting Combine is Feb. 28-March 6, 2023, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind. The club's deadline to designate Franchise or Transition Players is March 7, 2023, before 4 p.m. EST.

March 13-15 is the free agent negotiation period. Starting at 12 p.m. EDT on March 13 and ending at 3:59:59 p.m. EDT on March 15, clubs are permitted to contact and enter into contract negotiations with the certified agents of players who will become Unrestricted Free Agents upon the expiration of their 2022 Player Contracts at 4 p.m. EDT on March 15.

The 2023 NFL Year and Free Agency period begins at 4 p.m. EDT on March 15. The Raiders are expected to be significant players in the free-agent market this season.

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