Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast on the Hunt For a Field General

Our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast breaks down the Silver and Black's hunt for a quarterback.

Nov 17, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Las Vegas Raiders defensive tackle Adam Butler (69) is greeted by head coach Antonio Pierce during pregame warm-ups at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images / Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- The Las Vegas Raiders want a field general for a quarterback.

Gardner Minshew, Desmond Ridder, and Aidan O'Connell have not been able to fill that role adequately. Our Hondo Carpenter breaks down what the Raiders want and where they could possibly look in this latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast:

Here is a partial transcript of Antonio Pierce's Monday media availability:

Q: The last couple of weeks, you said that the offensive side of the ball didn't look the way you wanted it to look. Is that kind of what you meant yesterday, the offense looked better even though you lost?

Coach Pierce: "I thought it was more efficient. I thought the passing game was more crisp. Got the ball out, quarterback hit his backfoot and the ball got let go. On completions, did a good job getting the ball to our guys underneath. Obviously, we want to take shots down the field. Those opportunities didn't present themselves. Made some good, clean throws, and obviously up until that last inception, took care of the football."

Q: Gardner Minshew attempted 43 passes, I know that's not ideally what you want to do, but do you see that as a one off or do you expect to see more of that?

Coach Pierce: "I think the way the game started to go in the second half. We tried to stay balanced, we tried to establish the running game early, but we weren't getting the results that we wanted. Then we popped a couple and then we had a few there that we wish we had either the right read or our aiming points all lined up with one another. But you don't see too many teams, I mean not to talk about other teams, but other teams with really elite quarterbacks and throwing the ball 40 times doesn't equal a win. So, you want to find that balance, and for us, that's what we're still searching for. But we were very efficient in the passing game. There were some better examples in the running game of getting a hat to a hat. Still have to clean that up, but overall, gave us a chance to be competitive in the game."

Q: How do you do that with the hat on a hat in the running game? I know you want to run; how do you go about picking that up?

Coach Pierce: "One, it’s continuity, man. Not to use excuses, but I think that was our sixth or seventh different O-line grouping together and just keeping those guys communicating, moving the same direction, seeing the same thing. I'm a defensive coach. Nobody's ever going to sit there and let you just line up and tee off on them. So, there's a lot of movement, a lot ofshifts, different looks. And we just need to keep going to a better job in practice of just repping the same reps, same plays over and over versus different fronts and concepts."

Q: Any updates on Jakorian Bennett, Jack Jones, Zamir White, and Alexander Mattison?

Coach Pierce: "No, I do not. They're still going through treatment. Hopefully by later on this afternoon we will."

Q: A lot of the passing was game script and you just kind of fell behind in the second half. If you just take the first half, is that what you kind of want the offense to look like in terms of a bunch of different guys touching the ball?

Coach Pierce: "I thought we kept them off balance. I mean, you saw jet sweeps, you saw different guys touching the football, running backs in there. I thought Scott [Turner] did a really good job of just spreading the ball around. I thought Gardner [Minshew] did a good job as well of managing the game and the operation. Jackson Powers-Johnson declaring the center, all that stuff was really good in the first half. Competitive game. Obviously, we had two opportunities down in the red zone. Instead of kicking field goals, we want to score touchdowns. But getting the ball in the second half, I thought that would be another good opportunity for us to go down there and hopefully take a lead or tie the game up. But it didn't happen that way."

Q: Gardner Minshew was pretty complimentary of the job Jackson Powers-Johnson has done since moving overt over to center. A few game sample size, how would you evaluate how Jackson has performed?

Coach Pierce: "I think it's pretty interesting to see a rookie go to a position he never played much in college at left guard. Then one week fills in for somebody that's injured, and then the next couple weeks now have to make all the calls. And he's done a really good job. His energy, his presence, his physicality, you see throughout the game. High effort, very smart football player. And when he's controlling the line of scrimmage as being the center making the calls, you see his personality come out more and more. And that's where you see that leadership from a young player start to stand out. I think that's really good for our team. The more guys we can have talking up and taking that leadership role, regardless of the age or experience or money or draft, the better for us."

Q: What was it that you were able to identify that Miami was doing to keep you guys off balance defensively, where you just couldn't get off the field when you had that opportunity?

Coach Pierce: "Well, really, we had three third down penalties. So, it was really the Raiders beating the Raiders on that one, right? So, third-and-20, we get a holding call, uncalled for. Believe we had an offsides penalty, then we had a holding penalty late in the game. So, technique, fundamentals, things that we're coaching up we can't do in critical moments like that. Situational football. That's a four-point swing there because they scored a touchdown instead of a field goal. So, those are things. I thought early on they were mixing up different route concepts, looking for man, zone beaters, things of that nature. And it was that chess matchup, and obviously their quarterback did a good job getting the ball out of his hand very quickly."

Q: Back-to-back visits in the red zone ending up with field goals as opposed to getting into the touchdown. What do you think you still need to do to complete those drives with touchdowns?

Coach Pierce: "It's decision making, right? It's getting the ball out quick and obviously getting positive yards. I think too often you see us down in the red zone, the first play might be a good play, and then the second or third one doesn't seem to go our direction or our way. And then just taking shots, right? You got to take shots into the end zone, right? Throwing the ball short, you’d love to see all the YAC and all that good stuff, making guys miss; but you have better opportunities when you throw the ball in the end zone."

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