PODCAST: Training Camp Report #3: Who & What Stood Out?

HENDERSON, Nev.—The Las Vegas Raiders just completed their fourth 2025 NFL Training Camp practice, and it is the last one before pads come on tomorrow.

Our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast takes you inside the Silver and Black training camp for an insider's perspective on all of what and who stood out today.

You can watch the entire podcast below:

With the pads coming on tomorrow, the sense of excitement is through the roof among the team.

That competitive fire is what Pete Carroll has preached his entire career, and here in the desert is no different.

Carroll spoke to the media here at training camp.

You can read a partial transcript of all he said below.

Head Coach Pete Carroll

Q: Competition and energy has always been a big part of wherever you coached previously, but when you get a chance to reset and do something new for the first time, what are the biggest differences in terms of how you structure things and your message that maybe what you did in Seattle? Coach Carroll: "Yeah, I was taught a long time ago that you either have a philosophy or you don't, and we have one. But the philosophy is affected by the people and how they adapt to it, and how they make it come to life and all that. And that's what this process - so my challenge, biggest challenge, is to give them the ways that we believe we can play our football, but then let it become theirs. And so, it's really a fun challenge, and it's why I'm so charged up. I've been a little bit fired up since I've been here, I know you might have seen that, but each practice is an opportunity for us. Each day is a statement of who we are and what we're all about. Are we there again? Are we consistent? Are we battling? So, it's a coach's dream to have an opportunity like this, really. So, the fellas are responding in a way that's making it really fun, and we're going to get past a couple days from now and then we'll really start to bring it."

Q: What are you looking forward to when pads come on? Coach Carroll: "That's a big statement for us to make, stepping out of the OTA mode and all of that, because the game is at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football. And until we start knocking each other around and battling to make each other better, you really don't know where you are. And so, we can only evaluate what we can, and at this point, we're in great shape with understanding our players. But this is the next step. And so, there's not that many padded days before were playing. So, we'll take advantage of every one of them and expect our guys to get after each other. They realize that it's the guy across from them that makes them, and so that understanding is to bring out the best in everybody. So hopefully it'll be really fun to watch."

Las Vegas Raiders Superstar DE Maxx Crosby | Darrell Craig Harris, On SI

Q: In the statement yesterday you guys said that you have a commitment to excellence on and off the field. Is that sort of sending a message about the expectation that you guys have for this club moving forward? Coach Carroll: "I hope so, yeah. We have extremely high expectations. I don't even know any other way to think. And I don't care what year it is or what team it is, it doesn't matter to me. You're either going for it or you're not, and we're going for it. And whatever that means at the end of it, we'll find out. But in the meantime, there is no standard that we can set high enough that we can't challenge for, so we're going for it, like I said. And these guys are on board. They get it."

Q: Something that I noticed is how much you kind of move around your defensive backs kind of like a rotation, a lot of guys getting in there in the backfield. What do you believe is the intentionality behind that and kind of it being an open competition. Who are some guys that you like? Coach Carroll: "We're gathering information really, and I want them to feel what I'm saying. You're either competing or you're not, and so I've got to give them the opportunity to show what they can do and who they are and how far along they've come. And I'm not afraid one bit of playing the young guys. If rookies play, I'm fine with that. I've been doing that for years. That's a positive if that can happen. So, we have to give those guys opportunities to show themselves. So that's really what it is, and if you notice we're mixing everybody at all spots with that intention."

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