Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast on Zamir White, QB Room, Reason for Optimism and Much More

In our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast, we explore the potential of RB Zamir White, the quarterback room battle, reasons for 2024 optimism, and much more.

Las Vegas Raiders RB Zamir White / Darrell Craig Harris, Sports Illustrated

HENDERSON0N, Nev.—The Las Vegas Raiders have officially completed their first OTA and Mandatory Mini-camps of the 2024 season, and all attention is turning to the NFL Training Camp to be held in Costa Mesa, California.

Under the guidance of head coach Antonio Pierce, the Silver and Black have united as a team, from the coaching staff to the players. Their collective optimism and confidence are soaring, and the bar for their performance, if possible, has increased.

In our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast, we explore the potential of RB Zamir White, the QB room battle, reasons for 2024 optimism, and much more.

You can watch the entire podcast below:

Coach Antonio Pierce addressed the media after the mandatory mini-camp, and here is a brief transcript of his comments.

Q: Yesterday Christian Wilkins spoke about how Maxx Crosby brings up his level of play. I'm wondering how Maxx's gas tank challenges Thayer Munford and what you've seen out of his development with Maxx on the other side of him. Coach Pierce: " That's a great competition every day to go up against Maxx [Crosby] and Christian [Wilkins] over there. If I could just say a little bit on Maxx and Christian, I think the best thing and the greatest thing for the Raiders that we're seeing is two alpha competitors compete in everything. And that just goes back to the question earlier about quarterback competition. These guys are competing in everything, the first one to get off the rock, first one to win the individual drill, first one to run from the jungle gym all the way to field one. I mean everything is a competition. So what is happening with our team? Everybody's following. When I first got here, it was the Maxx Crosby show, fanboy central, waving hands. It was Maxx and then the band. Well, now it's Maxx Crosby - well, you know what? It's the Raiders running across the field. What you're seeing on the other side of the ball is guys competing. Everything I've talked about in every phase one, phase two, phase three, minicamp - competing. When we get to training camp, it's competing. It's Raiders versus Raiders until we get to Week One of the preseason and Week One of the regular season. The Raiders are going to be not the best of friends when we get to training camp, it's not going to be pretty, it's going to be ugly, I'm sure it's going to be violent. And then we'll love one another and we'll do it against somebody else. But Maxx Crosby going against [Thayer] Munford is going to do nothing but make Munford a better player. Every day you're seeing a guy that's coming at it. Munford can't have a bad day, he can't have a bad rep because I'm not slowing Maxx Crosby down, I'm not doing it. I told our staff, I'm not doing it. I'm not going to do it. Munford is going to see that in real life when we go up against other really good defensive ends in the National Football League. So, to get those repetitions each and every day give or take 50-60 snaps per practice. I mean, hopefully that speeds up the development and growth with him and make us a better team." Las Vegas Raiders Transcript 6.13.24 Q: We already know what Davante Adams can do, it's been documented, but when you look at the rest of that room, how good can that receiver room be for the Raiders this year? Coach Pierce: "There's two guys I'm going to point out and obviously the obvious ones, but one guy really stood out this offseason, Tre Tucker - different dude. He looks different, acts different, runs different, catches the ball different. Don't look at the size, don't mention that. Watch him play. He's the biggest guy out there. He had a hell of an offseason, came back right after the offseason program, the Super Bowl and got in here and started working and was here every day. Blazer, we know about the speed. But everything that we talked about working on, he took that to another level, and you can see the look in his eye of a confident player, of a guy that just wants to constantly get better. He's pushing and the guy that's right next to him, who I get it because you have to Davante and these guys kind of get pushed in the background, Jakobi. Jakobi is that guy. When you say I need a dog, Jakobi is that dog, Jakobi is an alpha, Jakobi is fearless, Jakobi works probably as hard as any player on our team. You saw this last year, his commitment in the run game speaks volumes because he could be easily a 100 reception and 1,000-yard receiver, but it’s all those other things, it's those crack back blocks, it’s those hits on the D-end, the linebacker, getting his nose bloody, rolling up his sleeves, flexing on guys, setting the tone. His energy and presence, he might not say a lot and you guys know him, he's kind of real slick, real slick and slight of words, but when he speaks you better listen because he's got some substance behind him. So, those two guys have really taken a really good jump for us. It's been really good to see because we're not going to win this game with one person. We’ll win this game as a collective group at the wide receiver core, tight end, running back and the quarterback, it’s not just on one guy. And we are going to win or lose by that, and these guys are really bought into the team aspect that it takes all of us to do it. You know, I always talked about our superheroes putting on their capes. I told the guys today, ‘Hey, those superheroes need some other guys to put some more capes on. We need some more capes in that room.’ And it's okay for Big Mike [Michael Mayer] to step up. Brock Bowers, I don't care about a rookie. We're going to go when he's ready to go. Alex Mattison, Zamir White, Ameer [Abdullah]; we got a lot of guys this offseason who have really relished in the role of competing and taking on that that sense of ownership of like I'm not going to wait for something to happen, I'm going to go make it happen. And that's the difference I see in our team overall.”