Josh McDaniels Final Thoughts Before Raiders vs. Chargers

Josh McDaniels spoke today for the final time before the Las Vegas Raiders take on the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday to kick off the 2022 campaign.

HENDERSON, Nev.-The 2022 Las Vegas Raiders are ready to move into the 2022 season this weekend, and Josh McDaniels has them fired up for what could be a magical campaign.

McDaniels spoke earlier today for the last time, prior to the contest.

You can watch his entire press conference below, and read the transcript:

Head Coach Josh McDaniels

Opening statement: “I’ll start by saying congratulations to Becky [Hammon] and the (Las Vegas) Aces again, and good luck obviously as they start the (WNBA) finals Sunday. The other thing I wanted to make sure I announced was our captains. We voted for captains this week and the team I think did a tremendous job of selecting eight people to represent them. Three on offense, three on defense and two in the kicking game. The special teams (captains) were AJ Cole and Mack Hollins. Defensively, it was Max Crosby, Denzel Perryman and Duron Harmon. On offense, Derek Carr, Davante Adams and Kolton Miller. All those guys have done a tremendous job for us and look forward to their leadership as we go into the season here.”

Q: How nice has it been filling out the clean injury report this week?

Coach McDaniels: “We battled like everybody does. We battled through training camp. Guys obviously get little bumps and bruises and sore and all of that. We've had enough periods of time where we've tried to gain some rest here and there, and then really obviously geared our treatment schedule and all the things we were trying to do to try to hopefully be as healthy as we can to start the season. You never know how that's going to go, but we have a healthy team right now. Knock on wood. Excited to have an opportunity to go to the first game. Hopefully we make it through today without anything coming up here at full strength.”

Q: J.C Jackson is so important potentially in what they do defensively. How much does it change for him to not be out on the field for what you want to do?

Coach McDaniels: “We're preparing for him to be out there. Then if he's not out there, he's not out there. He's obviously a great player, and I said this before, there's a lot of people on their team in all three phases that are going to challenge us. Their system is diverse enough, versatile enough to accommodate a lot of different things. They change it up, they force you to do a lot of different things offensively anyway. We're going to prepare for everybody on their roster, as I'm sure they are for us.”

Q: Do you have a good idea of where you might be in terms of the playbook?

Coach McDaniels: “Yup. Sure do. Like I said, we should only, and we will only do what we're ready to do. You never start where you finish, and I feel confident that our players know what we're about to ask them to do. We've had a good week of practice so far. I know they're focused, and their energy is in the right place. Adjustments are always a part of opening day. We'll start with the plan we have in place and then we'll change course if we need to, but I think the guys feel good about the direction that we've put in. Like I said, they practiced well.”

Q: With the Chargers being aggressive the past couple years in terms of going for it on fourth down and two-point conversions. It seems like that has become more accepted in the NFL. What do you think has led to that shift in recent years?

Coach McDaniels: “There's obviously a lot of data that goes into that and a lot of analysis about the pros and cons of it. I think offensively if teams have success on third down and shorter distances, you just kind of apply the same numbers to third down. So, if you're converting 50-55 percent of your third down and shorts, and you have two chances to do it on third and fourth down, you think that you'd have an opportunity to make it. There's a lot of things that go into those decisions; field position, how the game is flowing, what the score is, injuries, weather, your kicking situation, what's happened previous to that possession. They are all different. They are all independent.

I don't think you can just look at one thing and say we have to go for it, or we should never go for it. But we're definitely preparing our football team to be ready to handle those situations on Sunday. We know that this team has been aggressive for sure, and we expect that on Sunday again.”

Q: Did you watch the Rams-Bills game last night?

Coach McDaniels: "We weren't on the couch with our feet up, having an iced tea, but it was probably on in most of our offices. It's football season. I mean, we're human, we're excited that it started. We're excited that we're getting an opportunity to start on Sunday. I saw some of it here and there, while we were working and finishing up our stuff for last night. There's an energy that when the season starts you kind of know your turns coming right around the corner here. I think everybody from the players, the coaches, the support staff, everybody here is really excited to have an opportunity for us to get started on Sunday, too."

Q: How do you contain a guy like Austin Ekeler?

Coach McDaniels: "He's a great player. There's really nothing he doesn't do well. He runs the ball, very difficult to contain in the running game. He's slippery in the passing game. You have to know where he is at, and he lines up in a lot of different locations. Catches the ball like a receiver, runs really good routes, factors in on first, second and third down, redzone. Scored more points than any other non-kicker in the league last year. And then tackling him when he gets the football is probably the number one issue because he’s great short space quickness, the ability laterally to make you miss there, he can run away from you. And he's hard to tackle because he's built low to the ground, he’s got great leverage. Got a tremendous amount of respect for him. Our players know how big of a challenge this is going to be just to defend their entire offense, but in particular this guy is a spark for them in many ways on all three downs. It'll be a big challenge for us to know where he is at, and then once he gets the football, which he's going to get it, we're not going to stop it from being handed to him or thrown to him. We got to do a good job of gathering and rallying to the football and trying to get him on the ground."

Q: Is there a fine line in terms of putting pressure on a quarterback like Justin Herbert, but also not allowing him to get out there and make plays?

Coach McDaniels: "We got to be disciplined. We got to be disciplined with our rush coordination. The minute you allow him to run outside the pocket, in many cases he now becomes more dangerous. He’s got arm strength, I said the other day, to reach all levels of the field. There's really no throw he can't make. It's a difficult component of the game plan. We have to know where he is at, we have to be able to try to apply pressure without creating huge opportunities. He’s a great player, a young player that has really, really come on. You can just see his growth through the two seasons he's played. I mean, this guy's a special player, and we're going to have to do a really good job on not just one play, but we're going to have to consistently do it right as we go through the course of the game."

The Silver and Black are ready to kick it off on Sunday at 1:25 PM PT in Los Angeles against the Chargers.

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