Raiders Training Camp Notebook: Tom Telesco Relishing Another Opportunity

The ex-Chargers GM didn’t expect to receive another offer from inside the AFC West so quickly but will now get another chance at success.

Telesco earned a second shot in the AFC West with Las Vegas, one he has no intention of backing down from. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Tom Telesco didn’t put serious thought into becoming a media member when he contemplated his next career steps after the Los Angeles Chargers relieved him of his duties as general manager of the team after nearly 11 seasons. 

But Telesco thought he had better odds of being a football analyst than becoming a GM for another NFL team. He considered helping out a high school football team or landing a different front office job before he got the surprising call from Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis expressing interest in interviewing him for the club’s GM vacancy. 

“I’ve just seen the way it’s been lately, most GMs don’t get a second opportunity,” Telesco says. “I was completely prepared that, ‘Hey, if I don’t get another opportunity. I had a great run and I got 11 years at it. Got a great chance to build something and I took it as far as I could go. I just couldn’t push it over the top.’”

Telesco said those words about coming up short with the Chargers, as he sat in the bleachers of where his old organization used to hold training camps while Raiders fans got situated a few feet away from him before Friday’s practice at Jack Hammett Sports Complex in Costa Mesa, Calif. 

“In this business, you just never know,” Telesco says. “You never know who’s watching, who thinks what. It was flattering to get a chance to go in and talk with them.”

Telesco spent almost 11 seasons with the Chargers. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Eight months after being fired following the Chargers’ embarrassing 63–21 loss to Las Vegas, Telesco was sporting silver sunglasses and a white Raiders t-shirt talking to an NFL reporter about his new job with a second AFC West team. 

Getting his second shot so soon wasn’t something Telesco expected so quickly, but Davis and the Raiders took notice of the talented rosters he put together on an annual basis with the Chargers. He had quarterbacks Philip Rivers and Justin Herbert, wide receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams and edge rushers Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram. Those are just a few of many names that became Pro Bowlers under Telesco’s watch the past decade. 

Davis wanted that type of stability, with an experienced GM who had a track record of turning first-round picks into household names. The Raiders had struggled the past decade with turning first rounders into cornerstone pieces, but they did start to turn a corner before Telesco arrived in January. 

Las Vegas doesn’t have Herbert or Rivers at quarterback, but the roster does have plenty of talent at critical positions, including edge rusher Maxx Crosby, wide receiver Davante Adams, defensive tackle Christian Wilkins and left tackle Kolton Miller. 

Telesco talked to Sports Illustrated before Friday’s practice to discuss how he plans to get the Raiders over the top. Here are various topics he touched on, including the quarterback battle between Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell. 

Visited with the #Raiders for camp stop No. 3. Here’s the glorious hair of Gardner Minshew 🏈 pic.twitter.com/qE6QJBmKrg

— Gilberto Manzano (@GManzano24) July 26, 2024

Sports Illustrated: When will the Raiders decide on a starting QB?

Tom Telesco: “We’ll see how it plays out. We don’t really have a time frame on when to make a decision. I don’t think anybody ever really knows. It’s such a subjective decision on who you end up going with. We’ll let it play out and go from there.”

SI: What went into the decision of drafting tight end Brock Bowers in the first round?

Telesco: “We had talked earlier in the process that it could happen where [if] Brock Bowers is there, what would we want to do? There were some long discussions on that because the team had just drafted Michael Mayer the year before. Michael Mayer is an excellent tight end. ‘Do we really want to take another tight end?’ We went through the whole process. 

“Really what we came down to. We wanted to make sure whoever we took in the first round had the highest odds of success. We wanted to make sure we hit on the player. As I looked at the roster when I got here, there’s just that dearth of some first-round picks that just hadn’t panned out. So, ‘Hey, we want a high-odds player. Where we were [at pick No. 13], picking right there, a non-quarterback, we felt like he was the highest odds player there after the quarterbacks.”

SI: What has impressed you the most about head coach Antonio Pierce?

Telesco: “He’s got a lot of qualities as a head coach that are hard to find. He’s a natural born leader. … But his attention to detail has been outstanding, like, you wouldn’t see him as a first-time head coach by just watching how he’s put everything together, how much thought he’s put into everything.

“How he communicates, his expectations level of the players is really, really good. The players know exactly what he expects out of them, but he also tells them how to do it. But it’s been really, really good so far.”

SI: Why was Christian Wilkins the right player to target in free agency?

Telesco: “Christian checked off a lot of boxes for us. He plays a premier position in this league that’s really hard to find. He’s a great leader. He’s been healthy and durable and highly productive. We think he’s in the prime of his career right now. It really helped that [defensive coordinator] Patrick Graham knew him a little bit from his first year in Miami.

“He plays a position that can really affect the quarterback. We think he can even help our edges even more to have that presence inside, along with that of Adam Butler and John Jenkins. It gives us a nice group.”

Here are camp notes from Raiders practice Friday …

Best thing I saw: Jack Jones’s pass breakup vs. Davante Adams

Jones, the Raiders’ feisty cornerback, had the daunting challenge of keeping Adams out of the end zone during red-zone drills, which the Raiders prioritized in Week 1 of camp. 

The 5'11," 175-pound Jones had a size disadvantage against the three-time first-team All-Pro receiver. But Jones found an opening and extended his arms to swat a pass from O’Connell. 

Jones has impressed to start camp, following a strong spring. / Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

O’Connell struggled to find a rhythm and had a few interceptions, but in his defense, he didn’t have the luxury of a full-field series to get in rhythm. Pierce wasn’t happy about the team’s lack of points in the red zone last season and wants to make sure his offense improves in that area.   

Minshew was a bit better than O’Connell, but he didn’t have many “wow” throws during the heavy red-zone day. Perhaps the most efficient quarterback who can get the ball to the Raiders’ skill players will win the starting gig. But in practice Friday, Adams was rather quiet.

Best thing I heard: Jakobi Meyers not surprised he looks good in camp

The Raiders’ signal-callers had a tough time getting the ball to Adams, but that wasn’t the case with Meyers, the Raiders’ No. 2 wideout. He’s had a strong start to training camp, but that’s not surprising to the sixth-year veteran.

“No, it’s a little early,” Meyers said when asked if he’s in the zone right now. “My legs are fresh right now. I better look good, with all the work I’ve put in. We’ll see around Day 10. Ask me again. I’ll let you know.”

Rookie who impressed: Brock Bowers, tight end

The Raiders can maybe get away with not having a franchise quarterback this season because they have a talented group of skill players, which could be even better this year with the arrival of Bowers, the team’s first-round pick.

Bowers made life easier for O’Connell and Minshew as a friendly target who can create plays near the line of scrimmage and across the field. 

Veteran who impressed: Jack Jones, cornerback

Jones is the only answer here and not just because of his backflip in the end zone that made Raiders fans “ooh and aah” from the stands. 

The 2022 fourth-round pick was all over the field, breaking up plays in various ways. And it seemed his batted passes carried plenty of force, creating energy for the defense, which got the best of the offense Friday. 

Song of the day: Feel So Good by Mase 

On Thursday, the Rams’ training camp DJ went heavy on hip-hop songs from the 2000s. The Raiders’ training camp DJ went a step further than that,playing many jams from the late 1990s. 

Many bobbed their heads and mumbled lyrics to one of Mase’s biggest songs of 1997. But to give you one current song, the Raiders’ DJ did play Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” You might have heard of it because everyone in America is playing it nonstop this summer.