Raiders' Josh McDaniels Wednesday Silver and Black Update
HENDERSON, Nev.--Coach Josh McDaniels of the Las Vegas Raiders has the Silver and Black sitting at 2-7 and ready to get back on the field.
McDaniels knows that taking on the Denver Broncos won't be easy, and he took time moments ago at his Wednesday update to discuss the state of the Silver and Black.
You can watch the entire press conference below, and read the transcript:
Head Coach Josh McDaniels
Opening statement: “OK, Denver it is. So, we just got done talking about this -- this is an interesting scenario because it's the second game of a division series, and I'd say the team we're getting ready to play is dramatically different than the one we played the first time. And that doesn't always happen. But there are a number of players obviously who have changed, some who have come back, some who are no longer there. So, we spent a lot of time this morning talking about the differences in the two rosters, honestly, and the getting familiar with the players we're getting ready to play against this time. You don't always have the challenge of that because a lot of times there's some familiarity and you're repeating a lot of the things that you said. But I'd say with all the guys that have either gone on IR or aren't there anymore, and now some of the guys who are back, this is kind of a new opponent in many regards. Some of the guys are the same, but there's plenty that's different. Obviously, there's plenty that's up in the air too. So, we're going to be busy studying the potential match-ups that we could be faced with and the guys who they're going to play against. So, a little bit of a unique situation."
Q: What's it going to be like being back in Denver as a head coach for the Raiders?
Coach McDaniels: “I mean, I've been back there many times. Obviously not as a head coach, but I've been back there many times as an assistant. I usually am just focused on the game. So, I'm just excited for the opportunity, obviously. Like I said, I know that everybody associates bad memories with places that they've left, if it wasn't necessarily on your terms. But I didn't really look at it that way, they gave me a great opportunity, I was very thankful for that when I got it and still am. I've used it many, many times over to try to improve myself, hopefully, as a coach and as a person. So, there are a lot of people still there who I have a great deal of respect for and admiration, and we'll just try to do the best we can here to compete. But this will not be about me, this will be about our football team trying to win on the road and winning in the division on the road."
Q: When you talked to the leaders on this team, what's your sense of the information that they're relaying back to you about the mood and spirit of the locker room?
Coach McDaniels: “I think it's where you would want it to be. Like I said, we all face adversity, and everybody wants to get caught up in the situation and the record and all this stuff. We can't do anything about that right now. All we can do is focus on today and the opportunity we have this week. I thought this morning was exactly the way you would want it to be. Look, we're all professionals, we have a job, that's what we're here to do. We need to make progress and improve, and that's what we're focused on. But I think the leaders have been great, they've been great all year, and I don't see that changing at all."
Q: You've been in a lot of close games throughout your whole career. When it's a loss, can you take the optimism that you are a couple of plays away from flipping it? How do you kind of approach those when you go back and look at film and what happened in the game?
Coach McDaniels: “In many cases the close ones are harder to get over because you feel like you have an opportunity to win them, which in most cases is true. And so, we've been in a lot of games like that, which you can look at however you want to. The way I look at it is, there are things we can do in each phase of our team that would help us win those games moving forward. And so, I choose to look at it as if we are close to results that we're looking for, not super far away from them and there not within our reach. So, I just try to identify some areas that if we close the gap here a little bit, that would eventually affect the results in our favor. We spent a lot of time the last 48 hours doing that, and we'll continue to try to do that because we want to try to provide solutions. Everybody can talk about what it was or what it wasn't, but my job is to try to figure out how to make it better. So, that's what we're going to do."
Q: You referenced Denver being a different squad, but you guys are too as well. So, it's not a cut-and-paste type of plan, is it?
Coach McDaniels: “No. Like I said, this is an interesting dynamic because a lot of times when you play a division opponent and then you play in the second time, there's a lot of familiarity whether it's scheme, personnel, match-ups, etc. that you go back to and you say: ‘Man, that hurt us. Or we got the better on that one, or whatever it is.’ I would say this one is almost like a new team. Not every player is new, we know that. But there are a lot of changes that have happened between both teams. So, I'd say what worked in the first game, you can look at it, you might try it again, but I certainly also think there's a psychology to that as well. You've got to be careful. I've always been more uncomfortable if you win the first one than if you lose it. Because if you win the first one, your natural inclination and human nature is, well let's just do what we did the first time. But the other staff is really good and they're probably going to stop a lot of the things that you did to have success in the first game. And so, there's a balance; you can't throw everything out that you did that worked, but you've got to be careful about just relying on that. And so, this is our first opportunity, and we spent some time this morning talking about that with the team. We can't just say: ‘Well, let's just roll the same game plan out there,’ because they're going to practice those things and they're probably looking at them saying: ‘We can't let them beat us this way again.’ So, there's a little bit of getting out in front of that before it happens on game day when you're playing the second game of a division rivalry."
Q: How fine is that line between sticking with the process and keeping doing things and waiting for that result and the ultimate definition of insanity of doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result?
Coach McDaniels: “I think that in this stage where we're at, I think there's definitely some areas where we have to stay with it because we know that it has a chance to improve it. We just haven't quite created the habits necessarily that we're looking for. I think about each individual one, and you analyze it. I'll give you an example, like ball security. We've worked on that ad nauseam; starting in the spring, starting in phase two, starting in OTAs, starting in training camp, and we continue to try to do it. We turned the ball over a few times on opening day and since then nobody's taking better care of the ball than then this group. And so, there's work that needs to continue to grow and make some portion of your game better. Some areas of our team and game have improved in that regard, just like that has. In other areas, we're still struggling to try to find our footing or trying to improve it. I would say this, we rarely stay the same if something doesn't last. If we're not having success and it's lasting that way, and it kind of seems like we're not turning the corner, then you got to make some adjustments. Maybe it's you do it differently or you try it differently. You can't always throw it away because there's not always so many options for you to go to whether that's scheme, player related match-ups, whatever. But you try to keep going with what you believe in, try to get the habits to get formed so that you can do those things well. And if they're not working at some point, you got to make an adjustment. That's what it is."
Q: What went into the process of you wanting to bring Ameer Abdullah to this organization and what have you seen from him growing in his role?
Coach McDaniels: “Honestly, I've really liked Ameer since he was at Nebraska. For whatever reason, we never had the opportunity to add him to our team wherever I've been and Kennedy [Polamalu], his position coach here, has some familiarity with him from his time in Minnesota. And so, that was very helpful to just try to paint the whole picture of what he is and what he can bring to your team. I've always liked his skill set. He's always had the ability to compete and factor in the kicking game, which the (running) backs that don't carry the ball 20-25 times, they have to have a role on game day that's bigger than just waiting until somebody gets hurt. And so, Ameer certainly has started to carve out a role for himself on third down, definitely in the kicking game. I mean, he's one of our leading tacklers, one of the guys who’s down there on the punt team, on the kickoff cover team. So, he's an unselfish guy, great attitude, smart, tough, durable. He's been out there every single day, takes great care of his body. He's talented and starting to make some plays in both phases right now.”
Q: What does AJ Cole bring to this team and what’s it been like to have somebody like him to rely upon?
Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, I mean, he's a pro's Pro. His teammates voted him as a captain for a reason. He works extremely hard. He's very, very committed to doing the things that can help the team win. He went through a big shift this year, and we don't talk a lot about that. But it's one of the areas that we asked him to kind of change something that he had done in the past, and AJ has done a really good job of it. Some punters just pound it down the field and they got a big leg, and the gross is great, meaning the gross average, and then the net (average) is terrible because the ball keeps running back at you and you out-kick your coverage. And so, we've asked him in the last few weeks here to change some of that and put more hang time on the ball, let us get down there and cover it. And for a guy like that, who's been very successful and has obviously punted the ball very well in his career, he took the adjustment, he worked his butt off on getting it right, and now he's putting our gunners in a great position to tackle the ball without much return yards. So, I mean, he's a great example for all of our players. He’s unselfish. He doesn't care about individual statistics. He just wants to help the team in any way that he can. And like I said, he's undertaken a big change in his game for the better for our team, and he's done it with a great attitude.”
Q: On paper, if you look at Chandler Jones and Maxx Crosby, you’re thinking that’s got a chance to be a dominant pass rush. That hasn’t really happened for Chandler. Is there anything that you can point a finger to on why that hasn't translated? Is there still something there to draw from him?
Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, I mean, look, I'd say there are a lot of things that go into that being successful. And you guys have been around enough to know that sometimes they come in bunches, and sometimes there's streaks where they don't happen. I'd say, right now, we're in one of those streaks where for whatever reason. There have been been opportunities, it's not like he hasn't been around them. It's not like we haven't had chances. But we're looking at that in terms of how do we make it all more productive, not just one player, but everybody given the nature of the pass rush. How do we improve that collectively, and adding [Jerry] Tillery, does that help us? Yeah, hopefully. We'll see. But that was the intent on it, is maybe we can add another guy who has some disruption inside, maybe people pay a little less attention to our ends. And that's a choice that obviously every offense is going to need to make. So, no, Chandler is a pro and he's been through it before and he's going to continue to work hard, and we're going to continue to try to help put him in positions to be successful. But there's a lot of people who need to do some things up there that might affect that ultimately at the end of the day.”
Q: On Sunday, you, Derek Carr and Davante Adams made it pretty clear you guys aren't happy with how things have gone so far. Earlier this week, Mark Davis made a few comments basically saying he's pretty pleased with how things have gone at this point. With your conversations with him, has he expressed what is giving him optimism?
Coach McDaniels: "Look, I don't think anybody is happy with the results of the games. I think that's always been clear that we all want to do better. I appreciate Mark [Davis]'s support. I've always appreciated it, and I've said that a number of times that we're all here because of him, and we all want to do right by him. So, I think that we knew when we came here that this is a longer-term view of how do we get this thing to repeat That hasn't happened here in a little while, and again, the immediate results that we've gotten so far, they aren't what everybody is hoping for or wanting, but I think we're also trying to keep an eye on a lot of things that would go into how do you sustain it once you get it. It's not it's not easy to get, but once you get it, how do you sustain it, and that's not easy either. [Mark has] been great to us, and I appreciate his support. He's continued to try to give us anything we need or ask for to try to help us be successful, and I appreciate his long-term view on it too, I really do."
Q: Speaking on that sustaining success note -- you've seen it sustained probably more than any other franchise in this century. What goes into sustaining that success when you are able to find it?
Coach McDaniels: "There's a lot of things, it's not one thing. And again, when I first got there, it wasn't there. It wasn't there, and it took a little time, and it took some painstaking processes and a lot of effort, a lot of work, a lot of creating of good habits, new habits in many regards that weren't there before because when you change visions or philosophies or cultures, it just doesn't happen overnight where everybody just all of a sudden is the same and adopts it. We're not all from the same background, we're not all from the same place, and we're going to try to do it the best way for us here. We're not trying to copy everything that Dave [Ziegler] and I have been a part of. We're trying to do some of it, but also, we're taking a lot of input from other people and trying to figure out what works best for us. But there's a lot of things that go into that, scouting, personnel acquisition, draft process, free agency, player development, player acquisition, just all of that stuff really goes into staff building, team building. There's a lot that goes into ultimately having something that you can say: 'Man, I feel pretty good about what we have here. Everybody's on the same page, and now we're going to continue to work to keep it sustained as we go forward.' So again, I'm not patient in terms of trying to win and lose. We want to win every time we step on the field, that's what we're trying to do. But I do have some understanding of the type of patience we may need in order to ultimately get to where we're trying to go."
Q: How quickly were you able to kind of diagnose that it was going to be a little bit of a struggle and take a little bit longer to get to where you want to be?
Coach McDaniels: "Ultimately, we've been in a bunch of games, so I like I said, I choose to believe that those are right there, and we have an opportunity if we can just improve and do a few things better. And again, that's coaching, playing, everything. It's not just one thing. So, I'm not ready to say anything about where we are or where we're not. We're going to dive in this week and we're going to do everything we can to win this one and keep going. At the end of the day, we'll figure out what wasn't working, what isn't working, and then we'll try to make some adjustments to help it grow going forward. But I don't think anybody is hitting a button right now and saying: 'Hey, it's not this or not that.' We're going to keep going with it and keep evaluating ourselves and everybody around us and figure out exactly what we need to do as we move forward."
Q: I believe Nate Hobbs should be eligible to return here shortly. Are you able to provide an update on him?
Coach McDaniels: "He's close. I don't know that that would be this week, but he's close. Nate [Hobbs] is doing every single thing -- and then some -- possible to get back on the field with his teammates as soon as he can. So, the moment that he can do it, he'll be there, I promise. I just don't know if it'll be this week."
The Raiders return to action next week when they head to Denver to take on the Broncos. That game kicks off at 4:05 p.m. EST/1:05 p.m. PST. You can see that game on FOX.
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