McDaniels, Raiders Want Players Around For the Long Haul

Las Vegas Raiders Coach Josh McDaniels said one of the goals this offseason was to sign players to lengthy contracts.

As the Dave Ziegler-Josh McDaniels regime enters its second season, the pair has goals of establishing a future at their disposal within the Las Vegas Raiders organization.

The Raiders have brought in a number of new pieces so far this offseason, with most of the key ones having been dealt multi-year contracts.

McDaniels said at the NFL's Annual League Meeting last week that was one of the front office's main objectives going into free agency.

"We're trying not to do this thing where it's like every year there's a one-year deal and a bunch of one-year deals," the head coach said. "Now, you're always going to do a few. I mean, we know that. We're always going to do a few one-year deals; that's kind of impossible to get around that. But I think that we were looking for guys who are looking for a place that they want to call home for more than nine or 10 months, you know what I mean? And be a part of our culture. 

"We try to explain to them what we're looking for, why we're interested in them. There's a very specific reason for all of them, and I think we've addressed some of those things. I think they’re eager to kind of play a leadership role in their individual rooms, and then collectively as a defense here to see if we can improve that group all together.”

Of course, there had to be an exception with last season's rushing leader, Josh Jacobs, who was given the franchise tag. But McDaniels hopes there can be a long future for him with the club.

"[I] think the hope is that we can do something longer than that," McDaniels said. "I mean, that makes sense for everybody. I mean, if we can do that, that would be my hope as a coach. Look, I mean, when you have a player like him, he's a difference maker and clearly led the league in rushing last year and did a really good job for our team. So I don't really know how the rest of the league values those things. Those things kind of change sometimes pretty quickly, depending on who you're talking about and how good the players are, but we have a good one, and I look forward to working with him again and hopefully we can get something done."

The 2023 NFL Draft will go from April 27-29 and be held at Union Station in Kansas City, Mo. The 2023 NFL Year and Free Agency period began at 4 p.m. EDT on March 15.

The Raiders are expected to be significant players in the free-agent market this offseason.

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