McDaniels on Decision to Play First-Stringers Against Rams

The Las Vegas Raiders made a point to start some of their first-string players in Saturday's preseason game against the Los Angeles Rams.

The Silver and Black started stars like quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, wide receiver Jakobi Meyers, tight end Austin Hooper and defensive end Maxx Crosby.

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Typically, starters don't see much time during the preseason, as clubs look to keep their best players healthy for Week 1 while also giving time to players lower on the depth chart who are looking to carve out their place in the rotation.

Not only did Raiders Coach Josh McDaniels and the organization want their first-stringers to start on the opening drives in Saturday's game, but they wanted them to start together.

"You always go through that conversation in your head every year," McDaniels told reporters after the game. "And we just felt like it was, with a number of new faces, number of guys who were basically going to play their first regular season game together, that we'd like to go ahead and get that feeling you have in your stomach on a normal game day in the regular season, kind of get some of that out of the way today. And go through a normal pre-game preparation understanding that you were going to play, you're going to suit up.

"It's different when you know you can get hit and when you're bringing people to the ground, as opposed to practice when you're not really doing that. So, I think just making that decision as a staff, as an organization, with [General Manager] Dave [Ziegler], I thought our players had a great mindset about it. They wanted to come out and do it and do it right. And I thought -- I'm sure everything wasn't perfect. But we were able to get them in there, get them communicating together, get in the huddle, look each other in the eyes, play a drive offensively with those guys and handful of snaps. Defensively, same thing. So, we just thought it was the best thing for our team."

The Silver and Black return to preseason action when they play the Dallas Cowboys at Texas Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 26, at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT.

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