Raiders' QB Coach Hardegree talks Carr, Adams, Stidham, and More
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HENDERSON, Nev.--As Las Vegas Raiders Coach Josh McDaniels assembled his new staff, he targeted Bo Hardegree to head the coaching of the quarterbacks.
Now don't be deceived, McDaniels is the loudest voice in the room, but Hardegree is a talented young coach in the NFL, and is certainly on the rise.
Hardegree spoke recently after practice and we have the video below for you to watch or the transcript to read:
Quarterbacks Coach Bo Hardegree
Q: You have four quarterbacks in your room with varying vantage points given their development and age. But when it comes to Derek Carr, who has been in the league for eight or nine years, specifically from your job, how much of it is refining or changing, or is there any kind of a fine line on that?
Coach Hardegree: “Not really a fine line. We're teaching the system for everybody. Yeah, it's my job to make sure I put him, give him the best ability to be successful when he goes out on the field. And that's what I do every day from his drill work, from my meeting prep to just teaching the system. But that's what we're doing right now. It's just teaching the system. We're going from a baseline and we're just building that foundation right now.”
Q: How important is it to have Jared Stidham in the quarterback room because he does know the system so well?
Coach Hardegree: “It's a plus. You know, any time, I've moved a couple of times, a couple of different teams … if you have somebody who has that prior knowledge to kind of maybe tie something together, it's definitely a benefit and he’s been great for the whole room. He's a great guy, great worker. And obviously, I had a year with him previously in New England, so that's been good. It's been a positive.”
Q: Yesterday, Derek (Carr) said you had the most drills he's ever seen in terms of practice. How much has that benefited the quarterbacks to have all those?
Coach Hardegree: Well, the thing I do is to try to identify things to improve. Whether that's from watching the previous tape, things that have worked in the past or everything we really do, I try to stay away from just doing drills. It’s just something to correlate improving him that's going to either show up in practice or in games and that way, he can they can see the ‘why.’ And that's what I try to do with everything I do, is explain the ‘why’ to everything to these guys.”
Q: I would imagine you took a deep dive into Derek (Carr) upon taking the job. Was there anything that jumped out at you, maybe a perception that you had, that changed on watching him?
Coach Hardegree: “No. I've always thought he's been a great player. The best part of this thing is he's an even better person. I mean, it's great. He comes to work every day. He listens to everything we do, and he just he works his tail off and he's got a great, great mind, very smart. And he's a great football player.”
Q: When Davante Adams came in and you have a quarterback and a wide receiver who have to play together in the NFL, but have the off-season relationship and going back to college, how does that change your job with what you're doing with Derek?
Coach Hardegree: Doesn’t change at all. Because, I mean, like I said, what we're doing with Derek, we're doing the same thing with Davante. We're just building the system and letting those guys kind of work together, and, you know, they'll develop their relationship. But just continuing, like I said, to just build a foundation with both of them.
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