Raiders Coach Josh McDaniels From Training Camp

HENDERSON, Nev.--The Las Vegas Raiders have opened their 2023 NFL Training Camp, and Coach Josh McDaniels took to the podium to address the media.

You can watch his entire comments below, and read the transcript:

Head Coach Josh McDaniels

Q: Yesterday was a pretty physical day and there was some actual tackling to the ground. It felt like you were trying to set a tone, just wondering if that was kind of the whole intent?

Coach McDaniels: "It was really the same thing we did last year on the first day. There's pros and cons to that. You make a decision on whether or not you're going to do a little bit of that. We thought for our young players especially, having an opportunity to not have to worry necessarily about restrictions and all that, it might be a better way for them to start getting acclimated a little bit where: 'OK, I'm not going to get yelled at if I end up on the ground here.' So, it was good for us to be able to put some plays on tape and be able to coach off of that. But we have few opportunities to get into pads and work all the techniques and fundamentals that we need with contact that obviously everybody's going to need to do well to be a good football team. So, we'll try to see if we can't string another day together today."

Q: Tre Tucker seems to show up quite a bit in a lot of different ways. What are your impressions so far?

Coach McDaniels: "Very, very mature guy. Very bright. His talent, I think everybody saw that coming out in the draft. But he's a very good fit relative to our group. And he learns very quickly, and I think that's a really good trait to have for a young player. He's not a big error repeater. He can take something, a correction, and then try to make that correction show up on the field the next opportunity that he has. Like every young player, he'll make some mistakes. He's still got a long way to go. But relative to the way he goes about his business, a mature, intelligent approach. He really works at it, tries to make sure he takes the corrections to heart and then implements them in his game. I think he's been great to work with, really excited about continuing to do that."

Q: Yesterday, we saw Brandon Facyson go down with some sort of injury. Do you have any updates on his status?

Coach McDaniels: "Nope. He won't be out there today. That's all. I don't think it's going to be too long term. But he won't be out there today."

Q: Are there intangibles that we don't see that make Zamir White good?

Coach McDaniels: "I think every position has intangibles that are hard to see. But I think just his running skill and innate ability to see things when he has the ball, find lanes, cutbacks, when he's supposed to bounce, when he's not, when he's supposed to go ahead and tuck it in there and make some hard yards. And I'd say just overall his ability to go forward on contact. I've always been impressed with runners that do that. I've been around a number of guys who when they hit you, there's going to be a plus-two added on to the run. And Zamir, that's how he ran in college. And so far, that's how we've seen him run mostly in practice. He didn't have a lot of opportunity last year, obviously because of Josh [Jacobs]. So, just looking forward to continuing to work with him. But he's putting in a lot of time and effort into trying to be a complete player, not just a guy that has the ball and can do something with it. He wants to be good in blitz pickup, he wants to improve in the passing game. And all those things are part of a young [running] back’s progression. And so, he's really working at all those phases."

Q: Obviously the NFL is a business, but this game is played best when guys are having fun doing it. They've talked about last year just having to learn everything, and this year they're having a lot more fun. Do you notice it? And how much better does that make the Raiders?

Coach McDaniels: "You definitely notice it. The very first year, there's so much time spent on figuring out the ‘what' and teaching the ‘what' and learning the ‘what,' and what does this word mean to me. And while you're going through that, there's inherently going to be a few more mistakes here and there because not everybody knows what it is. And so, I think as the time has gone on here and we're into year two, we've gone through the spring, we're in a training camp; I think there's a lot less questions about that. We've tried to streamline some things to help that process, which always is a good thing for the coaching staff to do. Like: 'Hey, we struggle with this. Let's make that simpler or throw it out.' And I think ultimately at the end of the day, you're right, this is a fun game. That's why we all play and coach in it. It is a tough game, but the more we can understand what we're doing and what we're being asked to do, the more peace we feel, the less stress we have going to the field and being less concerned about things like that, the more your personality can show, and you can start to engage and have some fun with it. And we've encouraged that too. Our success and practice should be celebrated. It's a hard game. It's hard to make good plays in this league. There's a good player across from you a lot of the times, most of the time when we play, that's what happens. So, he's going to make a few good plays and you're going to try to make one more than he does. So, when we make them, we want our guys to have excitement, enthusiasm, energy. And I think that makes our team better. So, these are the dog days of camp and sometimes it's a slugfest out there. But soon enough there will be a different color jersey out there for us to do some of that stuff against, and that's another phase of the bonding progression that we'll go through is now we're not going against each other, we're going to get somebody else and then you can support the other side of the ball instead of competing against them. So, I noticed it, I feel it, I think our team does, too. And I think I'm eager to see how that manifests itself during the regular season."

Q: Are there any updates on Tyree Wilson and Neil Farrell Jr.? Are they closer to getting back?

Coach McDaniels: "They are day-by-day. Again, I think both guys are doing a great job of everything they're being asked to do, which is great. They're in every meeting, they're paying attention, they're studying. They're doing all the things that they can do at this point while they're getting closer to returning. Same thing with Byron [Young]. They're all in the same boat. So, as soon as they're ready, they'll be out there. And again, I can't say enough about the way that our training staff are working, about the way they're working to get out there. They want to be out there. They're itching, and like I said, as soon as they're ready to go, they're going to be out there."

Q: Whether it’s practice or the game, Maxx Crosby always plays with high-energy all the time. How great is it to have a player like that that just keeps churning? And how much do you think that makes his teammates better with the amount of effort he puts in?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, you'd love to have 90 who are like that. You know what I mean? And I think every one of our guys works hard. He just has an innate ability to bring it at the same level on every play, every day, regardless of what the day means. In shells, helmets, pads. Now, he's not hitting anybody when he's not in pads or anything like that. But his effort, the way he works, how early he gets here, how much time he puts in. He's an incredible example. I mean, we're all blessed that we're around him because I've been in the league for a little while and you see a few guys that come into your organization that are like that, and they're rare. They're unique. And so, I really appreciate the time that we have together with him. And I think our team appreciates what he brings to this organization and to the field every day to his job. There's no better example then what he does to try to help the Raiders win. And so, if everybody sees that and can try to sprinkle a little bit of that into their game and into their daily routine, we would all be better for it. We saw that yesterday. Michael Mayer certainly did.”

Q: Michael Mayer kept getting up after being knocked down by Maxx. Is that a learning lesson for him?

Coach McDaniels: “Absolutely. And it wasn't a bad lesson. It's his first day in pads in the National Football League. I mean, there's a baptism sometimes that happens. It is what it is. We all learn hard lessons in this league, but the hard ones are sometimes the best ones. He had a great attitude yesterday about just seeing the things that he wasn't doing right. And that's why we were so excited about having him here and being able to draft him. He has the right mindset, tough, no back down. Learned it's different, you know what I mean? It can be different for different people, depending on who you're playing against. So, he'll be better today because of what happened yesterday. And that's what Maxx wants. Maxx wants them to be better and to compete as much as he can, as hard as he can on every play.”

Q: Usually tight end is a position where it takes rookies a while to figure out the blocking piece. Why do you think it usually takes some time to pick that up?

Coach McDaniels: “I think sometimes that's more dependent on what they were asked to do in college than the difference between doing it in college and doing it in the NFL. Some tight ends aren't required or asked to do that as much in college based on the offensive system they come from. That's why there's some guesswork sometimes when you don't see the guy in line much in college football, to what that would ultimately look like and become if you ask them to do some of that in the NFL. So, that's a piece of it. I think the second piece is just the guys that you're playing against are a little bigger, a little faster, a little stronger. They are more proficient with their technique, their hands, their feet, and all the little, tiny mistakes that you might be able to get away with in college football depending on who you're playing against, those get exposed pretty quickly in the NFL. I kind of assimilate it to running backs, in terms of handling blitzes and blocking blitzers and all the rest of it. And sometimes they look a little bit like a fish out of water, too. But some of the very best ones that I've ever been around started that exact same way, worked at it, developed through opportunities, got better and then ultimately were some of the best players that I've ever coached in the backfield at doing that. Same thing at tight end. It's work, and like I said, it's a little bit new based on what we're asking some of them do to what maybe what they did in college.”

Q: What went into the decision to move on from OJ Howard yesterday?

Coach McDaniels: “Just looking at it from the totality. And those are hard decisions, we've talked a lot about that. He's a guy who's played in this league and done some good things. I didn't feel like it was going to end up working out here and if he's going to have an opportunity to make it somewhere else, doing the right thing there. We resigned Jacob Hollister, so there are a lot of things that go into that, kicking game, etc. But OJ did everything we asked him to do here. He's a great teammate and wish him the best.”

Q: It looked like Davante Adams was out there and one of the defensive backs either missed an opportunity to rep or they were waiting when Jakorian Bennett jumped in. It was the expected outcome of a rookie versus Davante, but walking back he's just listening to Davante coaching him up. When you watch tapes of rookies, are you looking for that competitiveness?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, look, they know who they're going up against one way or the other. And I think the more eager they are to try to take reps and improve, I think that says something about them. We tell him all the time, like we can see on the film if you're hiding too because you can see the whole line. If you’re way in the back and not getting any reps, which we're fortunate. We don't have anybody like that right now. They're all fighting to try to get up there, which is great. But I think the more you challenge yourself, the more you learn, the more you feel what that's like. I'm sure Jakorian’s heart was racing a little quicker, but you got to get over that because Week 1 is a bunch of guys that are going to challenge you. Week 2, it's a different group, but it's the same thing. They're all really good players. And so, the more you find out about yourself day to day, the more you ask of yourself, the more you challenge yourself, the better you're going to get. And I think he's mature enough, which is a word I’ve used a lot, to actually ask the guy on the other side of the ball: ‘Hey, what did you see there? Did I give it away?’ And so, I think the fact that they're willing to have and engage in those conversations is only a good thing. It's going to make them better.”

Q: What kind of opportunity is this for the other running backs with Josh Jacobs not being here? And if he returns, would you like to see more of the carries spread out this season?

Coach McDaniels: “I mean, everybody's getting opportunities. Obviously, the backs are all going to get opportunities in training camp. They did last year, and they will always do that because this is our opportunity to try to get them all a “foundation” in our system and see what they can do and see if they can develop and improve. This is a really important time of the year for everybody in that regard. You know, when JJ [Josh Jacobs], like I said, you go with what's the best thing to do for the team. And certainly that was him last year and I wouldn't expect that to be different this year. But, again, every game is a little different, every situation is a little different, the health of the team, etc. These guys all have great opportunities right now and that’s what they are focused on and trying to control their improvement day to day, and they are working really hard at doing that. And we haven’t had a lot of looks at some of these guys. This is only our second opportunity with Britain [Brown], our second opportunity with Zamir [White]. Sincere [McCormick] had a couple good runs yesterday is his first opportunity because he got injured last year. So, excited for these guys because every day there's something to learn from.”

Q: We met with Robert Spillane on Saturday, and he seems like he's just hungry to get out there and now put the pads on and everything. What have you seen from him and how much better can he make this defense?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah. I really enjoy being around Rob. He fits in really well with our group. He's a communicator. He's really tough. He's all about football. He's a good leader. And so, you want that in the middle of your defense. We want to be a tough group. We want to be a smart group. We want to try to take the ball away as much as we can, and Rob gives us an opportunity to do some of those things and improve. Teammates really respect him. He's a really hard worker, adamant about trying to do things the right way. I think he's made a huge impression on our team so far.”

The Silver and Black open the preseason by hosting the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, Aug. 13, at 4 p.m. EDT/1 p.m. PDT.

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