Josh McDaniels on Going up Against an Elite Safety in Tyrann Mathieu

The Las Vegas Raiders will be tasked with knowing where New Orleans Saints safety Tyrann Mathieu is at all times.

The Las Vegas Raiders have faced their fair share of challenging opposing secondaries this season.

That, of course, won't get any easier when they go head-to-head with a defense that includes one of the league's best safeties, Tyrann Mathieu.

"[H]e's been so productive for so long," Raiders coach Josh McDaniels said in his Friday press conference. "He's got great instincts. He really plays the game within the game before the ball is snapped, and I've had a chance to play against some really good ones. Ed Reed, Earl Thomas, Troy Polamalu and Tyrann, he's very slick in terms of trying to give the quarterback one look and then play something else. Safeties, to me, they have a few jobs -- No. 1 is to protect the team from big plays. He generally does a good job of that. I would say the other thing is that he does a really good job of getting his hands on the ball. And the safeties that do that are always the one that concern me the most, because they create turnovers. And turnovers obviously can swing the game.

"I think he's like second since he came in the league in terms of overall interceptions and ball disruptions. So that speaks, I think, volumes to his skill set, to how intelligent of a player he is, how well prepared he is, how well he knows the defenses that he plays in and just what kind of a football player he is. So very dangerous. Need to know where he's at, at all times. Plays multiple positions. He's not always going to be in the same spot on every play. A guy that we've pointed out many times so far this week and we're going to need to know where he's at.”

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