WATCH: Raiders' Minshew Sounds Off on New Offensive Leadership

The Las Vegas Raiders just tabbed Gardner Minshew as their starter against the Miami Dolphins. After a week full of changes, the quarterback talked to reporters.

Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Gardner Minshew / Darrell Craig Harris, Sports Illustrated

The Las Vegas Raiders are turning back to Gardner Minshew for their Week 11 contest against the Miami Dolphins.

Minshew has been the starter for the most of the season, save for a few hiccups in his performance. The Raiders just underwent some seismic changes on their offensive staff, and Minshew shared his thoughts to reporters. We have the full video right here:

Here is the full transcript of head coach Antonio Pierce's Wednesday media availability:

Q: Have you decided on a quarterback?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah. Gardner Minshew."

Q: What went into that decision?

Coach Pierce: "Listen, when we brought in Gardner [Minshew], we expected, obviously, the play that we had seen in the past. And at some point, you got to give a guy confidence. And there's been times, obviously, with turnovers and other things that have taken place where we made decisions to either put him on the bench or go to another quarterback. But this week, I felt like Gardner gives us the best opportunity to move forward, and he has every opportunity to go out there and help us get to a win."

Q: How do you give Gardner Minshew confidence at this point?

Coach Pierce: "Everybody around him. Starts with the staff, starts with myself, starts with belief and letting him know, 'Man, go out there and let it go, let it loose.' And what do we got to lose at this point, right? 2-7. So, everything that's behind us is behind us, and I'm looking forward to everything in front of me."

Q: You made some changes to the offensive staff. Scott Turner's the offensive coordinator, you bring in Norv Turner and Joe Philbin is the offensive line coach. What changes can we expect to see? Are they going to be dramatic or subtle?

Coach Pierce: "I think we're all waiting to see that. We'll see it out here at practice today. Obviously, I'm not going to make no promises, but just wanted a change, wanted a spark, wanted different ideas. Bringing in Norv [Turner] as somebody who's been from the outside, obviously he's been watching our games. Lot of respect for Norv. He coached against me as a player. As I got into coaching, watching him from afar, and then obviously being with Scott [Turner] the last couple years. So, getting some more ideas, some outside ideas, different perspectives, game planning, how to attack the weakest link, how to get our players in the best position to be successful. That's what I'm looking forward to."

Q: You made that decision [changes with the coaching staff] quickly after the game. How much did it help you in terms of your game planning to do that so quickly? Coach Pierce: "Huge. I wanted to get it over with. Once I made my decision that we were going to move on, get those two gentlemen in place, get everything that we need to do from an HR standpoint of paperwork, and get them in the building and start working during our bye week to give ourselves 10 days to get ready for the Dolphins."

Q: How do you feel like the bye week went for the coaching staff and even the playersthat were away?

Coach Pierce: "Good, good. Needed it, man. Needed to take a good cold shower, cold bath, wash all that badness off that took place over the nine games. And I think our staff did the same. I know our players did, but they were still around the building, which is the best thing about it, right? People might question our locker room, might question our culture, might question me, but you can't question our commitment. So, we're committed to this bad boy and turning it around. So, when they got in here Tuesday, that's what I felt. That's what they felt from me, and hopefully you feel it right now."

Q: Thoughts on getting Michael Mayer back in practice and potentially playing going forward?

Coach Pierce: "Excited, man. It was good to see Big Mike [Michael Mayer] back, man. He looked good, had a little tan, so I don't know where he was at, but he was hanging out somewhere good. But he looked good, man. He's in shape, he stayed out here this entire bye week working out, getting himself back into football shape and around the team, around the building. And then, obviously, when we got together yesterday, everybody's excited, you heard a lot of knocking. But in the end, it's just business as usual, that's what Mike's about, business."

Q: Do you expect it to be sort of a ramp it up period? I know he has that practice window before he officially has to come back, do you think he might have to take some time to get ready?

Coach Pierce: "Good thing we had a bye week. That's a good ramp up period there too."

Q: You mentioned Scott Turner, but you also promoted Joe Philbin to interim offensive line coach. What do you expect from him?

Coach Pierce: "Fundamentals and technique, man. That's what I was looking for with our O-line, right? Pad level, eyes down, striking, physicality up front, getting off the rock, hand placement, hat where it's supposed to be. Joe Philbin has been around this game a long time, coached some really good offensive lines, and been around some good offenses as well. And obviously, you got a gentleman who's been a head coach, we talked about that prior. He's been an offensive coordinator, and his forte is O-line play. And the one thing we talked about was just purely how we look off the offensive line. What does it look like physically from a technique standpoint, from a fundamental standpoint; so I'm excited to see what these guys do today in practice going forward."

Q: Have you decided who is taking over the quarterback room from a coaching standpoint?

Coach Pierce: "Scott [Turner] will be there."

Q: As far as your offense, at this point of the season, is it possible to make big changes or is it more like tinkering and small changes?

Coach Pierce: "No, I think we should change how it looks, how it sounds, the outcome, the operation, the bottom line. Being efficient in the running game, right? Taking care of football, having opportunities in the red zone, scoring. All those things that were flaws for us in the first nine, that's where we want to see improvement. The key word for us going forward, especially this week, is improvement. And it's not going to be all in one week, so I'm not going to fix all those things. I doubt we can do that in one week, but there are certain things that we talked about as a staff and as a team that we need to fix this week, especially."

Q: Jackson Powers-Johnson played well at center. Moving forward, do you feel like you're going to stick with him at center?

Coach Pierce: "He'll be at center this week."

Q: What's the collaboration like with Scott Turner on changing the look of the offense? Do you just let him do his thing or do you have a couple of key points you make to him that you want to see executed or changed? How does that go?

Coach Pierce: "I think with all our coordinators, I tell them exactly how I want it to look, and they obviously come up with the game plan. But there are certain things that have to change. Our ability to run the football has to change. We have to run the football. We're one of the worst teams in football, if not the worst running team in football. So, that has to change. And I can talk about third down efficiency down in the red zone where we have opportunities, either by our special teams or our defense to put the ball in the end zone. We want to see those things happen. So, those are things that we worked on throughout the bye week, and we'll work on this week for Miami."

Q: I know the teams are different from last year, but obviously you guys did play the Dolphins. Is there anything that you can take from that game last year to help you this year?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah, I think feeling their speed because that's real. Those dudes are fast, man, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4. I don't think anybody's at a 4.5, I think that's illegal for their scouting department. But it's real. I think for us to feel that with 10 [Tyreek Hill], with 17 [Jaylen Waddle], 28 [De'Von Achane] didn't play in that game as much, and I believe 31 [Raheem Mostert]. So, just getting those guys going, understanding the tempo and the speed and the efficiency that Tua [Tagovailoa] plays at. I think that was really good, and that's good film for us to go back and now watch as we look at the other four games this year as well."

Q: Your O-line got banged up in the last game, where do they stand for this week?

Coach Pierce: "Bye week helped. The bye week helped; I'll just say that. The bye week helped. We're getting there. And the good part about it is the guys don't want to be in the training room, we've got that kind of team where guys don't want to be in the training room, they want to be on the grass."

Q: Is Kolton Miller going to be at practice and also Andre James?

Coach Pierce: " Yeah, Kolton [Miller] will be limited, and Andre [James] will be out today."

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