Teams Las Vegas Raiders - The Black Hole

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#Raiders OC Mick Lombardi spent the early portion of his career as an assistant with the #49ers and their QB… Colin Kaepernick.

Kap working out for us. Probably better than the other backups we have.

In other news The Las Vegas Raiders have signed free agent DL Tyler Lancaster, the club announced Wednesday.

That must make about 20 Dlinemen
 
Las Vegas Raiders Coach Josh McDaniels spoke at the team headquarters after yesterday's OTA

Q: Alex Leatherwood got a lot of snaps at tackle today. Is that kind of the plan initially for him right now?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, we've been moving him around a little bit. Each one of the guys up front. We've got some guys playing center and guard. We've got some guys playing on the right side and the left side. We've got some guys playing tackle and guard. So, there was a little bit more of a focus of that today for him. Ultimately, we're going to try to figure out who the best five are that can give us the best chance of success every play. And he's certainly working his butt off right now to try to give us the right stuff wherever we put him. Today, it so happened, like you said, it was more right tackle. I like his attitude. I like what he's doing. That whole group just works. They come to work every day. They don't really say a whole lot and they grind it out. So, pleased with the effort that they're giving us. And again, we're asking a lot of some of those guys in terms of moving because that gives us an opportunity to evaluate multiple people alongside other people. We don't want him to get into a habit of this is the only guy that I'm ever going to play beside because there's a lot of things that those two people, or three people, have to talk about and a lot of words that mean things to him. He’s doing a good job. He false started once today, but I mean that's going to happen when we hit the noise.”


Q: Chandler Jones and Davante Adams, two superstars, but they come in with no ego and have quickly become leaders. What's it say about their work ethic and character that team is already following them?

Coach McDaniels: “They're really good people. They're great human beings. They come in to work and they don't presume to be treated any differently. I think that's a great thing. It speaks a lot to their teammates. They want to be one of the guys and if they do something wrong, we correct them just like we would correct someone else. They don't want to be receiving special treatment and I think that really helps the messaging, and they're willing to take time with other players. They're also really two of our hardest workers. So, they're out there busting their butt, they're trying to learn and improve in their own role in the system and then help others along the way. But their presence here speaks a lot to what their goals are. They want to help our team improve. They want to improve individually and try to make their units as good as they can be. Two huge acquisitions, among others. As you see, there's a lot of new people out there, obviously, that are working really hard. But really excited to coach both of those guys and see how they can acclimate as Raiders this year.

edited from si.com
 

Who's playing right tackle?​

One scenario could see last year's first-round pick, Alex Leatherwood, kicking back out to play the position he was drafted to play before he was moved inside to right guard after four games. Another sees Brandon Parker, who started 12 games at right tackle as a rookie in 2018 and replaced Leatherwood last season on the outside, getting an extended look after signing a one-year, $3.5 million contract this spring.

Derek Carr was sacked 40 times last season, the second most of his career. Two veteran right tackles are out there in Riley Reiff, who started 12 games for the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals before going down with an ankle injury and missing the playoffs and Super Bowl, and Daryl Williams, who started 33 of 33 games the past two years for the Buffalo Bills.
 

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O Line at this point is a pure guess.

If I was to take a stab at it now, I'd go Miller, Good, James, Parham, Leatherwood. I would have plugged Parham at centre but the Raiders have him listed on their media roster guide as a guard. Whether that is a true indicator, who knows?

Plenty of versatility between Good (G/T), Leatherwood (G/T), Parham (G/C) and Eluemunor (G/T). I'd be surprised if they can't find a group of 5 guys who are at least competent enough to let the offense flourish.
 
Al Davis would have loved to resurrect Colin Kaepernick. Are the Raiders still that team? Whether Colin Kaepernick signs with the Las Vegas Raiders or not, he is, at the very least, the second best quarterback who will throw a pass for their new coaching staff this season. That would matter to Al Davis, the man who transformed the one-time American Football League doormats into one of the most feared and flamboyant NFL franchises in football history, but Davis died 11 years ago and while his legacy and aura live on in Las Vegas his way of doing business may not. Kaepernick was exiled from the league six years ago for taking a knee during the National Anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice and has had only one brief dalliance with the NFL since, a momentary discussion with the Seattle Seahawks which led nowhere. That experience plus his early career successes make him the classic Al Davis reclamation project - a previously productive pro who has fallen out of disfavor with his franchise or, in this case, the entire league but may have a lot left in the tank. The list of such Raider resurrections is long and celebrated. Jim Plunkett. Ted Hendricks. Rich Gannon. Todd Christensen. George Blanda. Warren Wells. Art Powell. Lincoln Kennedy. Ben Davidson. Ike Lassiter. Derrick Burgess. Nemiah Wilson. Clem Daniels. The list goes on and Kaepernick, who led the 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2012 and the NFC Championship Game in 2013 before his star began to fade, fits perfectly on it.


Davis didn’t limit such gambling moves to the locker room either. He also hired the NFL’s first Black head coach in 65 years (Art Shell), its first woman chief executive (Amy Trask), was the first to draft a Black quarterback in the first round (Eldridge Dickey), first to draft a pure punter in the first round (Ray Guy) and the first to hire a Hispanic head coach (Tom Flores). However, while the Raiders have a long history of such moves there is no proof yet that Davis’ son, Mark, has the same taste for second chances and outside the box thinking as his father did.
 
The calendar has turned to June and that’s significant for the Las Vegas Raiders.

After Wednesday, the team will get a reported $19.75 million in salary-cap room from the earlier releases of linebacker Cory Littleton and defensive end Carl Nassib. Each team gets two post-June 1 cap designations and Littleton and Nassib were the Raiders’ June 1 cuts this year.

With the influx of cap relief, the Raiders will have a new total of about $25 million in salary-cap room.


they need to save $5-10 million for in-season emergencies and they have a couple of rookies to still sign.

Also, there is the chance they can use some of that new money to sign slot wide receiver Hunter Renfrow to a contract extension. He is eligible for a new contract and is set to be a free agent next year. There has been media speculation an extension could be completed for Renfrow, who had 103 catches and made the Pro Bowl in 2021, this summer. Tight end Darren Waller is also a candidate for a contract extension in Las Vegas.
 
Q: It seemed like bringing in Jakob Johnson was a priority. What does he bring to the mix?

Coach McDaniels: “He’s a grinder, man. He's a self-made football player. He comes to work every day, takes great care of his body. He's a tough guy. He's really a tough player, good teammate, unselfish, willing to do anything you ask him to do. He'll block, he’ll line up outside of the backfield. He'll play in a punt team. He does a lot of stuff for your football team, and he adds a lot of value and toughness to it. Jakob knows what his role is. He embraces it every day and he's an unselfish teammate. I just really enjoy being around him. A lot of what Jakob does rubs off on a lot of people, and I think there's a lot of value in that.”
 
It has long been speculated that star wide receiver Davante Adams turned down a substantial offer from the Green Bay Packers to instead be traded to the Las Vegas Raiders.

On Thursday, Adams put all the speculation to rest by confirming that he did receive a higher offer than the five-year, $141.25 million extension he signed when the Raiders acquired him.

"You guys have heard Green Bay offered this which is higher than what I was [going to make with the Raiders] and all of that," Adams told reporters. "And, yeah, I’ll say it, it was true. OK, it was true."

Adams further explained that money wasn't his only motivating factor for seeking a trade to the Raiders. The California native said it was important for him to be closer to home.

"But there's much more that goes into it. And family is a big part of it for me," Adams continued. "So, geographically being here, it makes it a lot easier for me to stay connected to my family year-round."
 
The Las Vegas Raiders donated $1 million to the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District to increase security at its schools.

"We are proud to be part of something to make the children in these schools safer," Davis said, per James Volz of the Uvalde Leader-News. "Two weeks ago, I had a conversation with [former Raider} Vann [McElroy]. He told me about the hurt his hometown was going through."

Nineteen children and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde last month when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos opened fire with an AR-15 rifle. Seventeen other people were wounded.

The incident was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history and the third-deadliest in United States history.


“Vann told me that he had a grandson attending public school," Davis said. "He said his family thought about having him go to a private school next year, but he wanted him to attend public school as Vann and his son had done growing up in Uvalde.

“He said that Uvalde was in pain and needed help. I asked him what we would do to help ease that pain.”

McElroy played for the Raiders from 1982 to 1990 as a linebacker, earning four All-Pro selections and two Pro Bowl berths. He was a graduate of Uvalde High School before moving on to play college football at Baylor.

The donation will be used for "implementing impenetrable doors and cameras inside and outside, and putting up an unscalable fence outside," according to the Uvalde Leader-News.
 

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Over the last few years, Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr has been given the ‘Captain Checkdown’ stigma. Fans and some people in the media became frustrated with Carr’s propensity to prioritize short completions over riskier but potential momentum-shifting passes down the field. However, that narrative got flipped on its head last season.

Per Pro Football Focus, the Raiders’ signal-caller had the second-most pass attempts beyond the line of scrimmage in 2021, behind only Tom Brady and ahead of rocket-armed quarterbacks like Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes.
 
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Rock Ya Sin looking good there
 
Las Vegas Raiders Coach Josh McDaniels was molded by one of the most successful dynasties in NFL history when he was with the New England Patriots.

The former longtime offensive coordinator is bringing his experience in New England to Las Vegas, and he's also brought along colleagues and will be reuniting with former Patriot players.

One of those key players is Raiders' addition Chandler Jones, who played his first four seasons in the NFL as a defensive end for the Patriots.

Jones is well aware of what his former acquaintance, McDaniels, brings to the table, having experienced his success first-hand.

The four-time Pro Bowler said McDaniels' many years of coaching is often overlooked when he spoke on Friday's edition of "The Herd With Colin Cowherd."

"What I admire about Coach McDaniels is his ability to demand the respect of people in the room," Jones said. "When you're a coach -- especially a head coach at that -- that's a very good characteristic to have. One thing people do know but it's not magnified enough is that Josh has the experience. He's been to about nine Super Bowls and he's won six, and people don't realize that.

"I'm not here to toot up his horn, but I'm tooting his horn. That credits to a lot of the reason why I went to Las Vegas also, besides playing with Maxx Crosby and being familiar with the front office.
 
Divine Deablo is an Al Davis-type throwback. A chiseled 6-foot-3, 226 pounds and 4.42 speed, the college safety-turned-linebacker immediately turns heads. To say the late, great Raiders owner would’ve loved Deablo is an understatement.

Not only does the Virginia Tech-product checks all the boxes on Davis’ requisites with his size and speed, but Deablo is also a student of the game and showcased his ability to learn, capitalize, and produce on the field.

Davis would’ve been enamored with Deablo from the jump and perhaps would’ve have taken him much earlier than the third round (80th overall) if the legendary Raiders owner would’ve been alive to make the picks in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Nonetheless, Deablo is a blossoming piece of the Las Vegas Raiders. His physical tools and mental makeup allows the second-year linebacker to bring things to the table that no other LB on the roster can.

“Yeah, a guy that has a lot of talent. Obviously transitioning from that safety position to linebacker. But there’s a lot of physical traits there that I can’t coach, I can’t give them,” said Raiders linebacker coach Antonio Pierce when asked of his impressions of Deablo during a post mandatory camp session press conference. “The mental aspect is where we’re working on and he’s doing a great job of that. What you see is a guy that’s real eager and happy, loves being around the building, loves being in the building, loves ball. I think those are all traits that you want from a linebacker, especially a young guy.”

Size, speed, smarts — Deablo has them in spades. And as Pierce noted, Deablo has the strong willingness to learn and absorb every nuance to become a better player. He displayed this during his rookie season. Case in point, the transition from an ACC safety to an NFL linebacker is no simple task. But not only did Deablo do it, his advanced progressed made him hard to keep off the field.

 
If there’s one person who is on the outside looking in but who is familiar with new Las Vegas Raiders regime’s modus operandi, it’s Scott Pioli. The former longtime NFL executive cut his teeth with Silver & Black head honcho Josh McDaniels when they were both with the New England Patriots in the early 2000s.

And, because of that, Pioli believes the roster building is far from over in the desert. He not only worked with McDaniels as New England's director of player personnel — McDaniels was a personnel assistant at the time — they were both engrained with a particular mantra.

“He worked with us in the player personnel department before he went to coaching and one of the things that was a big part of our philosophy is that we worked and used the entire calendar year to acquire talent,” Pioli said of McDaniels during a segment on NFL Total Access recently. “I don’t think the Raiders are done yet in terms of acquiring players. They will use the 53-man roster cuts to pick up players that will help their overall team — especially this defense.”

Pioli hits the nail squarely on the head with that notion as both McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler display a never-content attitude during their young tenure so far. From free agency, the NFL Draft, and to now, the duo have proven to be in-sync this offseason as the new Raiders power structure is dead-set on bringing back excellence and a championship mentality to Las Vegas.
 
The NFL and the Raiders are asking the Supreme Court to dismiss a 2018 anti-trust lawsuit by the City of Oakland against the Raiders and the NFL over the club’s move to Las Vegas.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that, on Monday, the NFL’s lawyers at Covington & Burling and attorneys for the Raiders at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer defended a December 2021 opinion by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the dismissal of Oakland’s lawsuit.


In December 2021, an appeals court sided with a previous ruling by a District Court to dismiss the lawsuit. A Ninth Circuit Court panel upheld the original decision, citing Oakland’s claims that the NFL violated the Sherman Act were overly speculative. The San Francisco-based court voted 3-0 to reject Oakland’s claims.

A year after the Raiders were granted approval from the league to relocate from Oakland to Las Vegas, the city of Oakland sued both the team and the NFL for damages, including lost revenue and taxpayer money.
 
The last time the Raiders brought in a new coach, Gruden took a wrecking ball to the roster. The new regime, at least for now, seems to have taken a polishing rag to the roster. And, as owner Mark Davis said, it's not a reset so much as taking a next step.

Breaking down the offense and judging whether the units within are better, worse or the same is an exercise in patience -- hurrying up to wait and see if McDaniels truly learned from his last painful experience as a head coach with the Denver Broncos in 2009-10. Already with the reputation of an elite playcaller -- especially in the red zone, an Achilles' heel for the Raiders of late -- McDaniels has the pieces in place (the No. 6 passing attack in the NFL, the No. 18-ranked scoring team) to, yes, take that next step.
 
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