Raiders OC Mick Lombardi's Entire Mini Camp Comments
HENDERSON, Nev.--The Las Vegas Raiders held a mandatory mini-camp today, and Offensive Coordinator Mick Lombardi spoke after practice.
Lombardi has an exciting offense to lead in 2022 and looks to expand his skills as an OC.
We have all of his comments that you can watch, and read the transcript below:
Offensive Coordinator Mick Lombardi
Q: Just from watching where we are, it feels like a little bit of a faster pace this year. Is that just kind of a byproduct of going into year two?
Coach Lombardi: "Look, great question. Year two has been obviously a great thing for everybody, coaching staff, players, equipment room, everybody again because you learn so many things from year one, schematically, operationally, and then you do those things and say to yourself in the offseason: 'Hey, well how can I improve those things that I didn't do a good enough job on?' And you hopefully build off that and you kind of see some of those things come to fruition in the spring, which is really encouraging. That's the most important thing I think of this spring. So, it's been it's been really great."
Q: I mentioned this to Andre James -- in talking to one of your players recently, they referenced how the offensive line plays with Carmen Bricillo, and I thought that was very interesting. He has been able to really get in with those guys, he's tough but they love him. He's one of them. What is it about his style that they embrace him as one of their own, not just their coach?
Coach Lombardi: "Carmen is a phenomenal person. I mean, that's one of my best friends. I love Carmen Bricillo. He's a great coach and a great person, so it's easy love Carmen, because I think he does a couple things. He's honest, he holds players accountable and he tells them the truth. I think that's the most important thing about coaching is you give the players the truth, and you tell them what it is and what it's not. I think they want that, they deserve that, and I think Carmen does a great job at that."
Q: Jimmy Garoppolo isn't able to get on the field but as a coaching staff, how do you kind of maximize this time of the year so that this isn't a wasted point in time for him?
Coach Lombardi: "I think Jimmy's done a great job of attacking each day like he's going to go out there to practice, right? So in the meetings this morning, phenomenal; love working with him, great attitude and he's locked in with every step. He's asking great questions, helping the young guys out. And obviously, him and Brian [Hoyer] and Chase [Garbers] have some experience in the system, and then helping Aidan [O'Connell] out as he comes and starts his NFL career and stuff like that, learning not just this system, but an NFL system. So, he's been great. I've really enjoyed my time with him so far and continue to work forward to have a great year."
Q: You guys added a lot of receivers this offseason. What excites you about guys like Phillip Dorsett, Cam Sims and DeAndre Carter?
Coach Lombardi: "DeAndre Carter, Cam Sims, and Philly [Phillip] Dorsett – I was with Philly Dorsett back in New England, so obviously knew him, had some previous experience with him. Those guys all work very, very hard. They all came here on their visit and they expressed how much they love football and how much they want to be in a culture that kind of has a hard-nosed attitude, preaches hard work, dependability, accountability. I think all those guys have shown up every day to try and do that. And that's been the most encouraging part, because obviously every year in free agency you lose guys, you gain guys, but if you can gain good people, that's really the most important thing. I think we did that at the receiver position."
Q: Were you guys looking to get faster at that position, add more speed?
Coach Lombardi: "Everyone's looking to get faster. So I mean, definitely. I mean, obviously we preach speed, toughness, competitiveness and all those things. So for sure, at any position we're looking to improve our skill set, whatever way it may be."
Q: This is a two-parter, but obviously it was your first season being an offensive coordinator last year. What was one of the biggest things that you'd say you learned last year that you started to take into this one? Also, how cool is it to have your brother on the coaching staff now?
Coach Lombardi: "Yeah, it's great. I love my brother. He's a really hard worker, obviously his career took a different path than mine, and he was available. I want to get good people, good coaches, and he provides that for us. But being with him every day -- my kids obviously enjoy Uncle Matt more than Dad, but no it's been great to have him. And then obviously, just like I spoke earlier -- just as a whole entire thing going into the first year of anything is difficult. You learn so much more than you thought you had to learn. And I really enjoyed the process this spring of self reflecting on the season, self reflecting on myself, the offense, the team and just my approach to every day, and I think overall it's been really, really fun to kind of just try and improve that and keep improving that."
Q: Can you talk about Dylan Parham's growth from year one to year two? What have you seen? I know it's early in the early stages, but what have you seen from him and building up his game as he moves forward?
Coach Lombardi: "Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with confidence, right? Confidence in knowing what to do and how to do it. Rewind a year ago he was just a rookie out of Memphis and didn't know a whole lot and just how to learn how to practice first of all. Now they've learned how to practice and they know what to do and now it's just tweaks and talking about different techniques. Now you can improve the technique because the assignment is taken care of. When the assigned is taken care of, then you can really hone in on what can you do a little bit better in terms of technique to get better, and I think Dylan [Parham] is trying to do a good job of that this spring improving from year one to year two."
Q: Sticking with the offensive line, you have continuity. A lot of those guys are back now. How much does that make them exponentially better, because we know that they work kind of in concert with each other more than any position?
Coach Lombardi: "No doubt, and I think the guys that we added have been really received very well by the offensive line room. The two young rookies and a couple of guys in free agency that we added have done a good job of taking coming in -- and those other guys helping each other out. The offensive line sees each other as one, not just five guys out there at one time. So, there's 15 or 16 guys every year in training camp and you hope to have that in an offensive line room where they're a tight knit group and they help each other out, and I think that's what we have. And I think that's what we preach every day. I think Coach Carmen [Bricillo] and Coach Cam [Cameron Clemmons] do a good job of holding those guys accountable and they appreciate that. That dependability every day -- dependability and toughness, we preach about that a lot, and I think when you have continuity, that can obviously help you get where you want."
Q: The durability and production of Josh Jacobs negated any kind of a running back by committee or anything like that, but can you envision maybe Zamir White and Brittain Brown being implemented a little bit more even when Josh gets here and as well as he's playing and being as durable as he was last year?
Coach Lombardi: "Yeah. I mean look, we always we always talk about your role is what you make it, and I think there's there hasn't been a greater opportunity the one in the running back room for those young players like Zamir [White] and Brittain [Brown]. So, they've gotten a lot of reps, they've gotten a lot exposure, they've learned a lot, so there's no hiding anymore. There's a lot of a lot of reps that they get that maybe Josh would have had or somebody else would have had, but they're getting them, which is great for them. The young players, they sometimes need to learn how to fail to succeed, and I think it's really what you're seeing -- and look I'm not saying Zamir White and Brittain Brown go out there and mess up every play, I'm not saying that at all, but look just like you do anything new, you go out there and you learn from your mistakes. And being able to do that and fix their mistakes I think is what they're able to do this spring and they're doing a great job of that."
Q: Staying in the running back room, another guy, Sincere McCormick who got hurt last year, he's now back on the field doing things. What was the process like seeing him recover from that and what do you want to see from him?
Coach Lombardi: "Yeah, it's great. Any time a player obviously gets an injury like that where they're out a long time, you hope they come back and hope they can perform the way they want to perform. And I think Sincere [McCormick] has not only done that, but he's done a great job of just learning the playbook and coming out there -- and then like I talked about Brittain [Brown] and Zamir [White], he's gotten some reps too, probably reps he wouldn't have gotten as a rookie before. So again, first of all the player's health is obviously concern number one and then once they have that back then just obviously learning the player, who he is, how he learns, and it's been a joy for me to do that with him."
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