Coach Antonio Pierce's Points of Emphasis Fully Understood by Raiders' Locker Room

The Las Vegas Raiders have spent the offseason working to correct the missteps from last season. Raiders players completely understand Coach Antonio Pierce's goals this season.

Antonio Pierce at Allegiant Stadium / Darrell Craig Harris, Sports Illustrated

The Las Vegas Raiders hope to do many things differently this season than last season.

One of those things is getting off to a fast start. The Raiders start the season playing against multiple teams with some of the best defenses in the National Football League but must still find a way to start strong.

All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams said Coach Pierce has made his point about starting the season on a good note.

"Yeah, I mean, that's what we've always kind of talked about,” Adams said. “It's not something that we failed to mention in the past. It's just talking about something and going out and doing it. It's one of those better, easier said than done things, but at the end of the day, you've still got to make the message clear to your guys and allow them to understand what's made it tough on us is that we've had to do so much late in the season over the past couple years and still having hope. 

The Raiders spent the second half of last season trying to fight back from a 1-3 start. While the Raiders played significantly better in the second half of the season under Coach Pierce than they did in the first half of the season under Josh McDaniels, they were unable to battle their way into the playoffs, as the bad start to the season was too much for them to overcome in the end. Adams says it would best serve the team to get off to a fast start this season to avoid the difficulty of having to win nearly all of its games down the stretch to make it to the playoffs. 

“But it's not easy in this league to win one game, let alone running the table and finishing the season out with victories,” Adams said. “So, just kind of reiterating to the team that it's important to start that way, that way we can build a - it's only been, I think one team to go through without any losses, and we're not necessarily fixated on being undefeated. 

“We'd love to do that, but the idea is starting fast; that way, if something does come up at some point where we hit a speed bump, guys don't have to start panicking and trying to be superheroes and just kind of stay the course and stick to what we do and what makes us best as a team.

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