Las Vegas Raiders Insider On QB Competition, Injury Updates, Henry Ruggs, Rumors, and More

HENDERSON0N, Nev.—The Las Vegas Raiders have officially completed their first OTA and Mandatory Mini-camps of the 2024 season, and all attention is turning to the NFL Training Camp to be held in Costa Mesa, California.

Under the guidance of head coach Antonio Pierce, the Silver and Black have united as a team, from the coaching staff to the players. Their collective optimism and confidence are soaring, and the bar for their performance, if possible, has been higher.

In our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast, we discuss the QB competition between Gardner Minshew, Anthony Browns, and Aidan O'Connell, as well as rumors, injury updates, and more of your questions and emails.

You can watch the entire podcast below:

Coach Antonio Pierce addressed the media after the mandatory mini-camp, and here is a brief transcript of his comments.

Q: You're getting ready to break now. Your first offseason as the head coach of the Raiders, got to see this whole process from beginning to the end today. How do you feel everything's gone so far? Coach Pierce: "Productive. I asked the coaches from the jump to put X's and O's to the side a little bit in the offseason as we started up in phase one and two and get to know one another. Coaches on coaches, coaches to players, and then when the players came in, players to players. I wanted to really build that chemistry, that continuity, that trust, accountability, communication that we talked about all offseason. I thought it went well. When we got on the grass, you can see the excitement, the passion, the love, the effort to play the game. I think the best part about the offseason, you're still in school. And in a sense when I say you're in school, you're learning. There's been adjustments that the coaches have come up with. We have new staff obviously on offense. Defensively, we added some new pieces in the coaching staff, a lot of good ideas. And then, you want to put it on the grass and see how it comes out and how it works with the players. And that's the best part about it because now over the next five weeks, as Patrick Graham would say, you get into the lab. Luke [Getsy], you get in the lab, Tom [McMahon], myself we get in the lab, and we make the adjustments necessary for what team we have now. Because when we first started in phase two, we didn't even have a draft. We didn't have the rookie class, we didn't have all these other pieces. And then you put it all together and you see how it starts to gel, and your identity and the look of your team starts to mold into what you want it to be."

Q: We talked to Davante Adams yesterday, and he talked about setting realistic expectations for this time of year in mini camp, but also setting high standards for yourself. What would you say are realistic expectations for this time? And what are the high standards you set for the players? Coach Pierce: "Their expectations are what I talked about, get to know one another, it's about people first. We're in the people stage, because we don't have pads on, we're out there playing seven on seven. The standard never changes. It's to come to this building every day with a smile, with a purpose to be the best version of yourself and to build a team. Because we're going to do that in training camp when we get the pads on even more and more. We get to know about each other physicality wise. But I think we've done a good job of really taking the time and getting to know each other in this building. And I'm not talking about just the first floor, I'm talking about the second floor, the third floor. We've done a lot of things with team bonding. The guys have done a great job of doing things outside the building with one another. And then when we get on the grass, we've competed and done a good job of taking care of one another."

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