Hollins on Las Vegas Raiders, New England Patriots Practices
HENDERSON, Nev.-This past offseason the Las Vegas Raiders signed the best WR in the National Football League in Davante Adams.
Little did anyone know, that the signing of fellow WR Mack Hollins, the offensive captain of the Miami Dolphins would be heralded as much as he has once training camp rolled around.
Hollins spoke after a joint training camp practice with the New England Patriots about the latest with the Silver and Black.
You can watch the entire press conference below, and read the transcript:
Wide Receiver Mack Hollins
Q: Your ability to stand out the way you have in camp, has it been more to do with it being a real open competition at your position, or did you put yourself in that position to be here?
Mack Hollins: "I think every camp I've come into has been to compete. A big reason why I came to Las Vegas was to have an opportunity to compete as a receiver as well as in the kicking game. So every day I came out was competition. I continue to do that; I don't think any spot is locked at all except for number 17 [Davante Adams] and number 13 [Hunter Renfrow]. Every other role after that is competed for every day. That's just all I do is try to come out and compete for it."
Q: Did you discover anything this camp about yourself?
Hollins: "I don't know if I discovered anything, I think everybody knows who they are if they're honest with themselves. I wouldn't say I discovered anything, I just think when I got those opportunities I was able to capitalize on a lot of them. A lot of them I didn't capitalize. Even today dropping a ball in the two-minute, that really bothered me. So making more plays is what I'm always going to try to do, knowing myself. But yeah, I don't think I changed who I am or became some new person all of a sudden."
Q: Do you take the special teams aspect of your game as seriously as your receiving?
Hollins: "It's definitely very important me. I mean you get one opportunity in the kicking game, and that's super important to me because there's no like, 'Hold on, let me get a second down and I'll beat the DB this time, or I'll get the block this time.' You either win or lose. And it's a big chunk of field position. On punt or punt return, that's usually like a 40-45-yard play. If I were to give up a 45-yard drop, people would look at that like, 'Wow, that's terrible.' That's the same as if I were to miss a tackle."
Q: What have you seen from some of the younger guys in the receiver room?
Hollins: "I think guys are doing great, and I think that's a testament to EB [Edgar Bennett] and the coaching staff and then our room especially because nobody's just comfortable with - even though I said Tae [Davante Adams] and Hunter [Renfrow] are the guys, the one and two - nobody's comfortable with that. Nobody's just like, 'Ah, whatever. I'm just going to let those guys get in. We're not going to work hard and compete and try to win a role.' So it's great to see younger guys and the older guys - you see Kee [Keelan Cole] and all the guys really working hard every day we go out there. Nobody just takes it like, 'Somebody's already got the job, I'll just coast through practice,' and that's big. It makes everybody better."
Q: How have the past two days of joint practice helped you grow?
Hollins: "That's always nice. Because as an older guy, your reps on game day aren't as high. To get an opportunity to go against another team is great because when you're going against your own guys, you can try to simulate a game as much as you can, but you just can't because it's your guys. 'Oh, I would have done this or I would have done that,' is always in the back of your head, but when you go against another team, it's like, 'Well...' It sounds bad but it's like but it's like, 'Hey, if something happened to them, that's not our team.' That doesn't mean cheap shots and all types of crazy stuff like that, but you can push yourself and you see something that you haven't been seen for last 21 days or however long we've been in camp - it feels like we've been in camp for like 40. But yeah, going against someone else is always nice."
Q: How do you think the whole team did in general going against the Patriots?
Hollins: "I think the team did well. It's really good to be able to go against a different opponent and to see things that you don't - because I'm sure the offensive line is like, 'Oh, Maxx [Crosby] is in this stance, I know he's going to do this.' When you get somebody new, it's like 'Okay, I don't know this guy as well as I know Maxx or Chandler [Jones]. I don't know his keys. I don't know the DBs keys the same way I know Rock's [Ya-Sin] and Ant's [Anthony Averett] and all them.' So to be able to go against somebody else, I think the team did well. We always have room to grow.` We're never at the mountain top, always climbing."
Q: Do you feel you guys got the necessary work in over training camp, and are you ready to turn the page and start focusing on the regular season?
Hollins: "I think we're always still climbing and always trying to get better at little, tiny things until the season because we still have time to get there. But I think we made a lot of improvements if you look at this team from even OTAs to what it is now just with a new coaching staff and new guys. That's a big hurdle to kind of get over, so it's nice to see guys meshing and understanding how the offense and defense are supposed to work and how to work together and how to communicate and knowing each coach and how he likes certain things. That's big on the team, and I think we've come a long way. Obviously there's always room to improve."
Q: Have the last two days confirmed you guys are ready, knowing where you were a couple months ago and now putting it out there against another team?
Hollins: "Yeah, I think it definitely did because the critiques that Josh [McDaniels] would give us during OTAs are not the ones he's giving us now. Because now, we're saying it to each other like, 'Hey, we need to - this situation now.' You'll hear guys at the end of the game when there are eight seconds left like, 'Hey, we're in this situation, we might be able to get two plays in.' Guys are saying that rather than coaches saying that. When that happens, that's a good sign."
Q: A video went viral of you in an Uber with Davante Adams, Derek Carr and Hunter Renfrow. Can you describe the chemistry you've developed between those guys?
Hollins: "It's been great. Honestly shout out to Hunter, I would have done the same thing. I don't know if it's because we're both walk-ons or what, but if I get an Uber and it says four people can fit and I've got four people, that's what we're getting. I guess that's just me. It's been really cool to get to bond with those guys. Obviously we see each other on TV and you know a guy but you don't really know him. You dap him up at a game, but for us to be together and really be able to click immediately has been awesome. I'm excited for us to continue to grow that relationship."
Q: What has impressed you most with not just Josh McDaniel's system, but you can get a sense that he came from the Patriot system that won him six rings? What stood out to you?
Hollins: "I think Josh [McDaniels] is his own coach, which I think is great. If you ask around the league, I think one of the biggest things when a Patriots coach goes somewhere is, 'Oh, is this just going to be New England?' And Josh isn't that way, he's his own coach. Obviously he brings a lot of things, because obviously that system or whatever you want to call it was successful. But Josh brings something to the table that Bill [Belichick] doesn't bring because he's a different person. But he's been great on just making sure we're focused on like you said, details, little things. Because games are won and lost by three, maybe six points at the most. If you can just be really good at the details, that'll win you a lot of games, that'll take you over that hump. The three games you might have lost because you weren't on the details are now wins, and that matters a lot in this league. So yeah, Josh has been great. He's a great coach, great leader and he understands us guys, which is very big. To not be so blinded by - he could've come in and said, 'We're going to do it this way whether it works or not,' and he's been very transparent about, 'This isn't New England. Things are going to be run a certain way, and if they don't work - If you guys do it right over and over and over again, and if something's not working, but you're doing it how we told you to do it, then we can adjust,' but we don't just want to do whatever out here."
Q: Are there drastic differences between coaching staffs you've played for? Or is it more subtle?
Hollins: "When I was in Miami, it was [Brian] Flores so he was from New England. I'd say the biggest transition was probably from Philly to Miami and here. But at the end of day, ball is ball. Do the things right, run the plays right and make plays when you get the opportunity. If you can do that, 99.9% of coaches will be alright."
Q: Your celebrations, it seems to be an infectious thing among the team. Where did you come up with that, and how has it helped build camaraderie?
Hollins: "I think energy is contagious, and I'm an energetic guy I guess. So the guys will just kind of jump on the train. The moves always are kind of made up. I might come out with something next time that's completely different. It's like dancing at the bar, if you're just dancing and you have good energy, other people will just naturally want to do it with you. But yeah, it goes back to like how close the team is. The guys have a lot of fun. You can judge a team a lot by when somebody scores how the sideline reacts. Half of our team is running on the field, and Josh is like, 'Get back, what are y'all doing?' That's just how our team is, and it's a good feeling to have because I've been on the other side of it where a guy scores and half the guys in his room are mad that it wasn't them and the other half the team is like, 'Oh, whatever'. That's never where you want to be."
Q: You and Davante Adams were celebrating today by throwing the ball into the weight room - did you guys hit anybody?
Hollins: "I saw him do it, and shoot he's a 99 overall, so I might as well try to emulate him. But when I looked in there, there was somebody on the computer and I was like, 'Oh wee, I don't have the funds to back this up.' He has the funds the back it up, I don't. So I wasn't going to hit him, I scooted mine to the right. I don't know if he hit anybody or not."
Q: We talked to AJ Cole about what stats you want to know when you die, and that your preference would be to know how many wrong decisions you made. From a football standpoint, what wrong decisions really stick with you?
Hollins: "I don't know. When I was talking to AJ, even here I would say right now this is the best decision to come to Las Vegas and play for the Raiders. But if I could go and see 32 different tracks of where I went, maybe 33 where I left the league without taking my life in a different place, was this decision right or wrong? I would say it was right, but maybe when I die and get the answers, maybe it was wrong. Me and AJ [Cole] have conversations like that in pre-practice. It's always something new, but it's always fun. Me and AJ are very big on arguing just for the sake of arguing. Even if we don't agree with it, we'll just argue it."
Q: How beneficial has it been to have the extra week of practice and the extra game this preseason?
Hollins: "As players you're like, "Ah, this is horrible,' but at the end of the day it does help to get seven or eight extra days - I don't know how many we got, maybe even more than that - than everybody else. Because at the end of the day, the longer you're together, the better chance you have of getting over those humps of the early mistakes and the early not knowing what to do, that type of stuff. So it definitely helps to come in early, even though when we first came it was like, 'It's kind of early.' All of your homies are still getting back from their trip to Fiji or wherever they're at and you're day four."
Q: Did you notice that difference on the field against the Patriots (having extra preparation?
Hollins: "Not really. I don't think I noticed it by this point. It's just so late into camp, you're not going to see those things, especially because we're not in full game mode. It's still a scripted practice, it's still in a controlled environment. Maybe in two days we'll see that, but when it's under a little bit of control it's fine."
Q: What would you have done if you didn't play football?
Hollins: "There's a long list of things I want to do. Own a bunch of animals. I want my own zoo. Like having a fish tank that I can swim in, that's a big goal of mine. There's a lot of things. I want to learn how to fly planes. I want to get my skydiving license, maybe be like a professional skydiver. Maybe there's more than 33 tracks, there's probably like 50 tracks."
Q: Have you had an opportunity to pick Davante Adam's brain and get some pointers on how to win all of your on-on-ones?
Hollins: "He's a great resource to use because he doesn't miss. He really doesn't miss, it's crazy. In my mind, I'm like, 'I'm going to do that same move,' and then I do it and it doesn't work like him. Because I'm not Davante and Davante's not me, so learning how to take the knowledge he gives me and turn it into my game and use it for my game is big. Going back to having extra days, that's extra days sitting next to him and just hearing how he breaks down a one-on-one or seeing how he breaks down a defense or the leverage of a defender, that's been big for the success of my game."
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