Josh McDaniels Opens First Training Camp Leading Las Vegas Raiders

HENDERSON, Nev.-Mark Davis struck NFL gold when he convinced the hottest coaching commodity in the league, Josh McDaniels, to take over as the head coach of his beloved Las Vegas Raiders.

While there hasn't even been a game yet, McDaniels has done everything right so far. He has been demanding of his players, but gracious with all that he has had dealings with.

In all of my years covering football, I have never seen a coach take over a good team, for a beloved coach who was fired and won the team so fast. Credit McDaniels for taking the time to get to know his players, being genuine, and listening.

With his first training camp at the helm of the Silver and Back underway, McDaniels spoke about the state of his team and much more.

You can watch the entire press conference below, or read the transcript if you desire. Who better to get the latest on the Raiders from, than the head coach himself.

Head Coach Josh McDaniels

Q: First training camp with the Raiders, pretty excited to get started?

Coach McDaniels: “Absolutely. We've talked about this a lot. You start training camp about four of five different times as a coach, you know, when you come back, then when the early reports get there, then when the vets get here, it feels like there's like a new start a few different times. And then obviously today will be our first actual day of practice. And then there's the beginning where we actually get to get into pads you know, so there's four or five different times where you feel like you're starting. But it's always a great feeling to get in there with the team, the entire team and you can see how excited they are. And eager to get to work, eager to start becoming whatever it is we're going to be able to become this year. And the coaching staff's been eager to get out there on the grass and start coaching. It's the thing we love to do the most in our profession and certainly there's a lot of anticipation and excitement today.”

Q: Three guys ended up on the pup list to start out are you hopeful that those guys are back?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, hope so. I mean, again, we try to avoid the time frame and predict and all that because there's such a difference between one player's body and another. But I know all those guys are working really hard, extremely hard doing everything they can to get back out there on the field as soon as possible. And you know, if you if you start training camp with 90 guys out there on the field, you're lucky, you know. So whatever number it is, 86, 87, that we're going to have out there, I think that's we're doing pretty good. And like I said, the guys that aren't out there, they'll be doing everything they can to get out there as soon as possible.”

Q: Your training camp style, is it second nature, everything coming together just so used to it are now as your head coach? Is there a different pressure? You're feeling nerves to make sure you're really maximizing?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, I think there's definitely some different feelings. I think the overall concept of training camp is something that you're used to if you've done it enough. But I just think the anxiety you feel is a good thing because you want to do right in your position, your job. And we've had some meetings and those kinds of things, and each day at this point in time is a little different, because the schedule, and the reporting dates, and the league rules, and the time, and we're managing the times, and those kinds of things. So, logistically, we want to get those things right. But I feel like I've gone through a few of these and just really trying to enjoy the process as being a head coach at this point and got a lot of great people here that are on top of all the things they need to be on top of. As I've said before, just trying to do the right thing in my role and be a good leader for our team.”

Q: Expectations, some (players) said they don't think about them, some say they do. As a coach do you embrace them, do you talk about them, or in your room do you think you have the leadership that will handle any that come about your way?

Coach McDaniels: “I think the only expectation we have is that we're going to go out there and work extremely hard to try to be the best team we can be each day and improve. At this point in time, during the course of this season, we're in a complete foundational building type phase. We're not worried about thinking about opponents and games and strategies and those kinds of things. This is about fundamentals and techniques and conditioning and communication and learning each other and knowing how to work with different groups of your teammates. And there's so many things we have to do between now and when we're going to play, you know, even play the first preseason game. So, our expectation is we're going to have a great day today. I mean, that's really as simple as we can make it. That's my expectation as a coach and I think the team has done a great job of adopting that mindset because it's the only thing we can control.”

Q: A couple of guys figure to be in the mix for defensive tackle, how do you feel about the group overall?

Coach McDaniels: “Hopefully, at some point here, they'll be back. But feel good about the guys we've added. We have a great deal of competition that's about to play out here in the next six weeks at a lot of spots on our roster, and that's a healthy thing. We tried to build the roster as best we could, to this point with that in mind. We feel like that's the best way for players to improve and get better. I feel like that's a way for our team to improve and get better, is that they're competing not only with guys on the other side of the ball, but they're also competing with the guys in their own individual meeting room. I think it makes everybody better and so excited to see that whole group kind of take form. But like I said, I think we have a lot of spots on our team where that's definitively the case. And we're going to give everybody opportunities and whatever they do with those opportunities that will dictate how we end up making decisions ultimately.”

Q: Two weeks from tonight, Hall of Fame Game in Canton. You're a Canton kid. You get to go home for your first Raider game. Cliff Branch going in, Richard Seymour. How exciting is that? And also, from a player personnel standpoint, you got that extra preseason game and a lot of new guys, you got to find that chemistry, cohesiveness. How much time did these guys start getting in these preseason games?

Coach McDaniels: “I'll start with the last part. We're going to try to do what we think we need to do at that point each week. Make the right decision for the team, but we haven't made any big decisions about playing, not playing, how much, how little. I think some of the things we're going to see in practice in the next two weeks will certainly help dictate how we feel about organizing each part of the preseason. And each game is important. It's a great opportunity for us to make progress as a team to evaluate our players against different competition and different schemes, different players. So, we're looking forward to having an opportunity to do that. And, for me, I know we say it's an extra game. There's only a couple of years here that we've been doing the three, you know, so for me it's almost normal, that we have four. So, just looking back at some of our notes in the past about how we've used the four preseason games will probably dictate a little bit more of what we do this year. And I really feel like this is a great opportunity for our organization. Certainly to highlight to the Raider greats that did a lot for our team, a lot for our organization. And I know there's a lot of people that are really excited to see Richard and Cliff be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And for me personally, that's another story for maybe another day. Great to go back home. I've never been able to participate in the Hall of Fame Game. This is 22 years for me and there was a time where I was supposed to play in it, in 2011, and that was the lockout year.

So, I'm looking forward to having an opportunity to go back home and take the team to the Hall of Fame. Interestingly enough, a lot of our players and coaches have never been there. So it's a pretty cool fraternity, when you get an opportunity to go through there, it's humbling to see all the history and the tradition and you're part of it. And so our team will be eager to do that. Looking forward to all that's going to come with that, but certainly the most important part of that trip will be what we can do on the field, how we can improve as a football team.”

Q: The past couple of days you've signed a couple of players that played in the USFL including a receiver you used to coach with the Patriots on the practice squad. How useful to give you guys more scouting tape?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, it's a benefit. I think it speaks to a lot of the, there's a lot of guys that continue to work hard and they want to achieve their dream of playing in the National Football League and creating a career for themselves. And there was a lot of good football played when you watched that league, and we're not the only team that has grabbed a few of those guys and tried to add them to our roster. Dave and his crew have gone over every ounce of film that we could possibly look at this point, to try to make the best decisions going forward for our roster. It may not be the last person that we add from that league, but those two guys definitely showed well for themselves. And like I said, wherever we can get them, if they fit what we're looking for and the type of team we're trying to build. It's a great opportunity for us to look at that stuff.”

Q: Based on what you guys did in mini camps and OTAs, what is going to be the rollout. Is it a revisit or re-install and you're going to refresh some of the stuff you did? Or are you going to build upon that these early first few days of camp?

Coach McDaniels: “It's kind of a, we're going to go back through a lot of the things that we did. You'll see today, there's not going to be a lot of competitive portions of this practice where the offense and the defense are going to go against each other. That's just our choice. We're going to kind of go back through and really focus on some of the teaching on each side of the ball. Certainly in special teams, there'll be a little bit of that too. So, a little bit of a slower process here. We can't be in the pads till next week anyway, and so we wanted to really take some time and go back to our fundamentals at each position, our communication that we really need to nail down here and so the players, they understand this is maybe more like a little bit of a phase-two day and then we're going to build into some things that are going to look a lot more like OTA days until we finally have an opportunity to get in pads next week and then begin the physical portion of our development.”

Q: Starting a week earlier, helping that build that right away?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, I mean, you're trying to, it's funny, I probably went through half dozen or more calendars, where you're looking at, you're mapping it out, you're trying to figure out what's the right way to approach it. You have 50 some days or whatever it is until we actually begin the regular season. So, it's really just what's the best use of our time, what's the best use of our on the field time, our practice time? So, you know, this is the choice we made. I don't know that there's really a right or wrong. We've reported a little earlier than Jacksonville. That doesn't mean that we made a better decision than they did. And I think each football team has an opportunity to try to develop and bring along their group as they see fit and hopefully we're going to use the time to our to our benefit here and develop the way we want to develop here.”

Q: Was the heat another complicating factor to preparing?

Coach McDaniels: “You know, it's funny because I've studied temperature and humidity, maybe more than I've ever thought about doing that too. And, when you look at it, you're going to get these days, as you all know, and then you may get a day where it's in the low 90s and it's a little different. I think practicing in the morning is the right thing to do, certainly for our team. We've kind of set it up or tried to set it up the right way and hopefully it's the right decision to make. But if we need to move the mornings back because we have to have morning meetings, following a day off then we're going to go inside. We've told the players, that's just so that if we have to move the day back, we're not trying to get out there in 115 as much as we can prevent it. We're going to start early, try to get our work in. If we need to adjust that for some reason, whether that's temperature or some other factor then we'll try to make a smart decision and do it. But guys are in early, we're used to working early at this point in time. So we'll start with that and hopefully we do a good job of hydrating. The medical people did a great job of going through the entire thing yesterday about hydration, awareness of heat-related illnesses, those kinds of things. So, we'll be on top of that, and continue to try to do the right things prior to getting out there, which is I think the really the big key.”

Q: Are you a humidity guy or a dry heat guy?

Coach McDaniels: “Nobody believes me when I say, when they say it's 100 degrees, and I say yeah, but 100 degrees here is nothing like 100 degrees in Florida or back East because of the humidity. I walked out of the office last night and it was 99 or whatever it was, but it felt great because there really wasn't that humidity factor. So, I don't sweat much out here. It's funny, so I like that part.”

Q: Last year the Raiders had only one quarterback play during preseason games. How important is it for you having four guys available starting in two weeks?

Coach McDaniels: “I'm looking forward to that. That room has been really an interesting room. You get to know these guys and they work really hard. They really help and complement one another. You'll see that on the practice field too. And so eager to see that part play out. It's obviously as important a position as we have. Everybody says Derek's your starter. Well, anybody behind the starting quarterback is the most important guy in the team after one injury. So, it's an important position for every team in our league and we're going to see that play out in practice, and then we're going to see it play out in preseason games. Our focus with that position is just going to be developing those guys and trying to bring them along and get them the opportunities that they need to improve.”

Q: You know Duron, the experience he brings. What do you expect?

Coach McDaniels: “First of all, Duron's a good player. He's played at a high level for a long time. Been a very dependable guy does a tremendous job of preparing his body. And if you watch him go about his business, if I was a young player, I would really take note of the things he does. Whether it's in the cold tubs, or pre-practice, or post-practice, or extra meeting times, or the things he does to prepare himself to have a great day at work. Those rub off on everybody. He's a good communicator, he's smart, he loves football, and he's a great teammate, and he's very unselfish. So, just blessed that he's here with us looking forward to another season together.”

Q: How does it feel to have Kenyan Drake and Denzelle Good back in the fold?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, Josh, too, and some of the guys that didn't get a ton of work in the spring. It's always, as a coach, when you hear and you finally get that final go-ahead from the training staff, they're cleared, they're good to go, they're ready to go, it just makes you feel good because you know you're kind of getting closer to whole. And those guys obviously have done a lot in this league, done a lot for this organization, and eager to work with them. As a coach who hasn't coached them before, there's always that level of unknown of how are these going to look, how's this going to look when he does it. So, eager to start seeing them do just some of the basic things we did in the spring, and then bring them along. They both had a great attitude. They've worked extremely hard to put themselves in this position to come back and contribute, so excited about seeing what they're going to do.

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