Josh McDaniels on the State of the Las Vegas Raiders
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HENDERSON, Nev.--The Las Vegas Raiders are one week away from their first preseason game of 2022.
As the second week of training camp rolled on, Coach Josh McDaniels spoke about how camp is going, the state of the team, coaching philosophy, and much more.
You can watch the entire press conference below and read the transcript:
Head Coach Josh McDaniels
Opening Statement: “I’d first like to congratulate Becky [Hammon] and the Aces on the Commissioner Cup victory. Mr. D (Mark Davis) was real happy about that yesterday. Obviously, that’s pretty cool to have another team that’s right here connected to us achieving things like that, and we are obviously excited to support them. We have a lot of players that know some people over there, so that’s a good thing for Vegas. We’re excited for them.”
Q: What were your first impressions of your guys' first day in pads?
Coach McDaniels: “About the same as they always are. It’s the first time in months that they’ve had to carry them, and legs get a little heavy as the day goes on, which is this phase of the year where you are trying to callous the body so you can kind of withstand the grind of the season. And so many things showed up yesterday just from an individual technique perspective that we need to correct and fix and do better. The most fundamental aspects of our game are blocking, defeating a block and literally those are the things we are really going to try to focus on and we coached that yesterday afternoon, yesterday evening. There is not a lot of new stuff going in today. We are going to try to go back to some of the things we did yesterday and hopefully see some progress because our big thing is we don’t get many days like this where we get to redo a bunch of things we did yesterday without the urgency of adding a bunch of new installation and talking about an opponent and all those things that you have to do during the regular season. We don’t get many opportunities to do this, so today is a great opportunity for us to make progress individually, which obviously then will collectively make us better. A lot of technique things, fundamental aspects of the game that we haven’t been able to do that we were able to do for the first time and now we have a shot to improve them.”
Q: What are your overall impressions of Josh Jacobs through the start of training camp?
Coach McDaniels: “He wants the reps; you can see him. He’s taking a lot of reps in there and trying to, as a lot of guys are, work themselves into ultimately playing condition. But Josh got himself ready to go, he rehabbed hard in the off-season and got ready to participate at the beginning of camp, which he did a great job of that. He was in condition when we reported, like the rest of our team was, and continued to grind away through the basics. And again, when you miss reps in the off-season part of this period for you are acclimating to what’s your job and hearing the call in the huddle and being able to go out there and play fast. And so, there is a handful of guys along with the rookies who are kind of getting used to that at the same time that they are going through the condition process too. Josh is working real hard and pleased with what he’s trying to do.”
Q: Has the process of working with [General Manager] Dave Ziegler been as seamless as you thought it would be?
Coach McDaniels: “We’ve known each other for a long time, that’s one part of it. But I think we’ve also earned the respect and trust of the other person. And in this kind of a situation, to me the best thing we can do is really just be honest with one another and the trust factor for me is the biggest part because he can say something to me that maybe necessarily I didn’t think of it, or maybe I don’t even agree with it, and that’s what we want to do because if we are both sitting there and saying the same thing every day, we’re not going to get the best from each other. It’s been really good. He’s a forward thinker. He’s thinking about things that maybe I’m not thinking about and vice versa. And then we have communication daily, multiple times. We literally just got done meeting with one another now. Just trust him to the end and really believe in what he’s doing. He’s got an agenda every day with his personnel staff and the scouts that are here, trying to grow that side of it, while we’re trying to work on what we are doing on the football field and then constantly talking about the roster and what we can try to do to make it the best we can make it. So, really have a great deal of trust and respect for him. Like I said, our relationship goes back a long way, but more importantly I think it’s going to evolve now in this new role that we are both in and I look forward to that.”
Q: Where do you see the competition at for the right tackle position? And is there a timeline you would like to see for one guy to step up and claim it?
Coach McDaniels: “It’s too early to sit here and try to say where it’s at. But there are multiple guys in there who are competing. They know that; they all know it. We are going to try to play the best 11 guys on every snap. It’s the right thing to do. It’s the best thing for the team. And if we keep putting the best 11 out there regardless of how young, old, whatever; it doesn’t matter about that. If we put the best 11 out there, I think everybody respects the fact that we are trying to win. Everybody is going to get opportunities. Jermaine [Eluemunor] is doing the same thing. Thayer [Munford] is doing the same thing. So, we got a lot of people who are rotating in there on the right side. We got a lot of people who are playing a lot of spots too, which like I said, it’s not just one spot on the line, we are going to try to find the best five linemen and we are going to try to find the best 11 to put out there on every play with each unit. I think they all have a great mindset; everybody is working. We told them, there are no like, ‘Well this is this and this is that.’ We have periods where we start and those guys aren’t in there, so there’s a lot of competition. I think it makes them all better. They’ve embraced it, which is really what we want from our team, and we’ll look forward to letting it play out on the field. They’ll determine it.”
Q: Is there any long-term concern for Zamir White?
Coach McDaniels: “No, he’s doing everything he can to get back out there as soon as possible. And the hope would be that it’s not too much longer, but we’ll make sure we are smart about all those guys. There is a handful of them who haven’t been able to be out there for a couple days, and they are all working extremely hard right now to try to get back as soon as possible.”
Q: From your experience, what’s the biggest obstacle for a rookie offensive lineman?
Coach McDaniels: “I’d say the physicality part of it, they are used to. There is a different speed sometimes for them to get acclimated to relative to the things moving in front of them in the games and the twists and the stunts, how fast linebackers fill into a gap. It’s just a different tempo at times and a lot of our young guys saw that yesterday. There was a little bit of a different speed that at first, you’re kind of thinking it’s going to be one thing and it happens just a split second quicker than you imagine. I think for a lot of those guys just getting acclimated to and the tempo that every play happens at is going to be important for them. And there is no better way to do it than to let them have any opportunity in pads to experience that from the other side of the ball. So, I think both sides learned that and realized that yesterday a little bit.”
Q: How is Dylan Parham coming along so far?
Coach McDaniels: “Good. Dylan works hard. We have those handful of rookie offensive linemen, this band of brothers. They come in, they are in meeting the room together and they have the night meeting when the veterans are out. You have the little extra time with the rookies, and they are really pouring into the scheme, pouring into the fundamental aspects of what we are asking them to do. And they are getting better day by day, little by little, and that’s all we can ask of them. They've got a great approach and great mindset.”
Q: How is the team meshing with each other and creating their own identity?
Coach McDaniels: “I really enjoy this group. It’s ultimately their culture and it’s ultimately their team. And what we do and how we do it, they are going to define it. We try to set an expectation and a standard of what we are looking for, but ultimately, they are going to do it. And they hold one another accountable to that standard and they have a lot of fun doing it. I think this game is a difficult game, but it’s more difficult when you don’t like the guys you are doing it with, and I don’t see that at all. I really think this group enjoys being around one another. They have fun coming to work. We laugh. None of you might think that, but we do. We laugh and there’s things that happen during the course of the day. We keep it lighthearted a little bit and the rookies have done a decent job of trying to entertain us at times. But this is a group that is developing its own identity and that’s not for me to say exactly how that’s going to go. I think they’ll determine that. We got great leadership on the football team, on all sides of the ball, and like I said, they come to work every day with a great mindset and attitude, and they are looking forward to the next day of work.”
Q: The last couple of years with Cam Newton and then Mac Jones, you kind of had to start at ground zero with two new starting quarterbacks. Does that kind of help coming here and sort of having to teach a new offense to an entire new roster?
Coach McDaniels: “It’s interesting that was kind of the way it worked, so I do have some element of there was a new player the last few years and now we have a new group this year to teach and go over it. But we’ve gone through the same process of trying to evaluate how we do things; how do we coach it? How can we make it better? How can we make it easier to learn and digest? How do we practice it better on the field? Is there a different way to watch film that would make it better or more efficient for our players? And we’ve done that each year that I’ve been in the league, and we are trying to do that now as a team. Some things we watch together, some things we separate and watch individually. It’s just going back through the communication process and trying to make sure that the questions keep coming. That’s the big part of this year is just don’t stop asking. If you are not 100 percent sure, keep telling us that we need to find a different way to communicate it but I think we’ve gotten off to a good start relative to the way we are trying to present things, and there’s definitely been an element of, ‘OK, hey, slow it down,’ for us as a staff because we do have a little bit of extra time. At the end of the day, the beginning of the season is going to be wherever we are at, we feel good that we can go out there and run it at a competitive level, that’s what we are going to use. We aren’t going to use everything, that’s impossible. So, try to get good at the fundamentals and the things we are going to need to compete. Do that early in the season and then we’ll grow as the season goes on.”
Q: Can you talk about what you’ve seen from Kenyan Drake?
Coach McDaniels: “He jumps in there, man. Him and JJ (Josh Jacobs) both are taking a lot of reps and really getting acclimated. Again, missed the opportunity in the spring to really get in the huddle, really hear the communication, get the calls, and do all those things. But really like the way he’s working. Good attitude, good guy, and obviously he’s done a lot of different things in this league and for this team in specific. Just looking forward to continuing to build with him and grow with him. Got a competitive room and they all feed off one another, they all help one another, which is great. But enjoying Kenyan.”
Q: At this stage, would you consider it more teaching not to lose or coaching to win games right now?
Coach McDaniels: “That’s a trick question. (Laughter). I think it’s the same. You can’t win until you learn how to not lose. At the end of the day, that’s it. If we fumble the ball on the ground, we are going to lose. So, you can’t win. To me, you don’t do one without the other. Coaching our team and getting them to understand that if we commit a bunch of penalties, if we turn the ball over more than other teams do, we are not going to win. So, we have to learn how to not put ourselves in those positions and those are the most important fundamentals that we can do in terms of the big picture; is don’t hurt yourself, make the other team do it, make the other team earn it every single play, every single quarter, every single game. And until any team learns how to do that, you are giving the other team too much of an advantage too often. And so, for our players, I think we understand it. We’ll see. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be perfect, but I think they are getting the idea. Just to tell you a funny story, Lester Cotton jumped offside right at the beginning of one-on-one period yesterday, and he wasn’t even going. The other guy was going, so Lester, he just took off and did a lap. He comes back and he looks at me and he goes, ‘I’m tired, boss.’ And then he has to go in there and do a rep and then he comes out of the rep, and I said, ‘How was that?’ And he goes, ‘I don’t want to run no more laps.’ And it’s starting to sink in that there is a penalty, there is a cost to a mistake that you can prevent. And whether it’s the ball on the ground, you saw a couple balls on the ground yesterday which is a couple too many. If that happens in a football game, we put the ball on the ground, it’s hard to say that we are just trying to coach to win. You have to learn how to not lose the game, and then you have a shot to win. A lot of games in our league are lost with mistakes and errors, and so I think they are one in the same. I really do.”
Q: What have you seen over the years with Carmen Bricillo that made you want to bring him here?
Coach McDaniels: “Really works hard. He’s a guy who dove in at the ground level, which I loved. He was an offensive line coach in college football and then came to us (New England Patriots) and he was at the bottom of the totem pole, breaking film down and learning a brand-new language after many, many years of doing it a different way. And that’s a humbling experience. I mean, I did it when I was 23 years old. He did it when he was in his mid-40’s. So, there’s an element of sacrifice there. And he had an opportunity to learn from Dante [Scarnecchia] for a year in New England, and then really has just grown each year that he's had that opportunity. And his mindset is the same, he doesn’t think he has all the answers and neither do I. And we are trying to grow and improve each day in each year, and that’s what I see from him and (assistant offensive line coach) Cam [Clemmons]. I knew Cam before I got here, and Cam and Carmen do a really good job of working off one another and working at pushing our offensive line group as a whole. So, pleased with that. And again, we’re just scratching the surface with some of our guys that haven’t done it as many years as maybe somebody else has, and that’s OK. We wanted that. We didn’t want everybody to be 25 years in and all that. We want to have a good blend and those two guys are really growing and developing, and they are doing a good job.”
Q: How would you describe Denzel Perryman’s leadership? Also, Roderic Teamer and Clelin Ferrell have come out of practice the past couple days. What are they dealing with and how are they doing right now?
Coach McDaniels: “Cle and Team, I don’t think we are talking about something long, long term, but just working through that and hopefully they will be out there as soon as they can. I know both of them are working hard in terms of treatment and all that stuff. Denzel, he brings a lot of juice every day and you can tell when he comes in there, he’s got that booming voice, and everybody knows when he talks it’s usually something important. He’s very confident. He keeps it lighthearted, but he’s serious about the game of football. And I don’t know many people who work like he does. We have a lot of guys in that category, but he really brings it every day. And he works hard. He’s trying to work hard to get better at things that maybe he hasn’t done as much of, which I love about him. We have a handful of guys who are doing that and are trying to expand what they’ve done in the past in man coverage or whatever it might be to try to improve their role and to improve our team. Pushes his teammates, holds them accountable. Leads the same way every single day. Very consistent presence in our building. Doesn’t go up and down and ride a roller-coaster. If there’s any issue you can be sure that Denzel will bring it to my attention as soon as possible. And if you go to Denzel with something that we need from the team, like he’ll get it done. He’s got the respect of the entire locker room. Really, really enjoy being with him every day.”
Q: What has Lester Cotton done to get to that next level this off-season?
Coach McDaniels: “I wasn’t here with him, so I’ve heard different things obviously. But I’m using my experience and my exposure to him now to really form our evaluation and our opinions of everybody here. And Lester has just come in and put his head down. The Lester Cotton that I know from this off-season and now going into training camp, he just works hard. He’s been in condition. He’s gotten stronger. He did a tremendous job in our off-season program. He’s been vocal. He’s led by example and with his voice. He's brought others along with him. And so, he’s earning the opportunities that he’s getting and again we’ll see where that goes. Lester knows that he’s competing just like everybody else is. But really excited for the growth that I’ve seen in him and the growth that I’ve heard from people that were with him before that is happening right in front of our eyes. Lester enjoyed yesterday, that’s his type of day. In pads, able to hit people, physical. Looking forward to seeing how this goes forward, but really pleased and excited for Lester.”
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