Las Vegas Raiders OC Mick Lombardi Ready for the Opener

The Las Vegas Raiders kick off the 2022 season tomorrow versus the Los Angeles Chargers and OC Mick Lombardi is ready.

HENDERSON, Nev.-As the Las Vegas Raiders prepare to kick off the season, new OC Mick Lombardi has the reigns to what many feel could be the best offensive in the National Football League.

Lombardi took time to look ahead to the opener and reflect on camp after practice.

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

Offensive Coordinator Mick Lombardi

Q: Playing against a team like the Chargers, do you feel like there's certain games where you have to be a little more aggressive getting points on the board?

Coach Lombardi: “This league is too good, honestly. All the defenses, especially Chargers are so well coached. Brandon Staley does a great job of utilizing his personnel and getting his guys to go and they’re always prepared. We’ve played them the past couple years, whether it's been at the Chargers, or at the Rams, or at my time in New England, and every time you play against them, they're just a well-prepared team. You can tell that their coached well, they're disciplined, and they try and do the right thing and play complementary football, a lot of stuff we preach here. That's a great question because at the end of the day, every game in this league as you go and turn on tape on Monday for a new opponent, you realize that the team you're about to play against is going to present some problems, and you're trying to go attack those the best way possible. This league is very good. Every team is pretty much well coached, and they have a lot of good players. The same thing goes with the Chargers this week.”

Q: What is your overall assessment of the offensive line? Also, being with Jermaine Eluemunor in New England, what's the biggest difference you've seen in him as a player and as a person?

Coach Lombardi: “We traded for Jermaine in 2019, when he was in Baltimore in New England [Patriots]. Jermaine was a young player trying to figure himself out. I think he puts a lot of time and effort in New England and eventually became a starter there for us, and then came here and played a lot of games for the Raiders, and obviously is an integral part of what we're trying to do as a member of the offensive line here. He's like any other any other young player in this league. They come to the league, they're trying to figure stuff out, they're trying to evolve mentally and both physically. Then they take those tools they've learned in practice, and you to try and develop guys. I think that's the biggest thing you can't lose sight of during the season is, yeah, you're trying to game plan and trying to move forward and trying to assess certain things in terms of X's and O's wise, but the development of the team, the development of the young players to eventually help you out in years down the road, I think is a big part. I think Jermaine has taken a big step in that, obviously with our time in New England and obviously here with the previous staff and then now with us.”

Q: Is one of the things that's hardest about your job is when you know what you think you have but you don't know?

Coach Lombardi: “I think at the end of the day, you go drive the stadium in the morning. You think the game is going to go one way, and then it doesn’t, and it goes a different way. I think that's just coaching, that's football. It’s an imperfect game played and coached by imperfect people. You have to go out there and try and assess what you can do well, and as things are going you may have thought one thing and then something happened and you're like, ‘Okay, let's try and go back to it.’ But I think that's the fun part about coaching. And that's the fun part about playing this game and coaching this game, is that you have to adjust and trying to adapt to whatever you can minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.”

Q: With the Chargers’ defense, can you talk about the pre-snap to post-snap cover sells and what kind of challenges that presents for you as the coordinator?

Coach Lombardi: “We played Denver this preseason that was Ed Donatell. He obviously comes from the Vic [Fangio], and they've coached all together. And obviously, Coach [Brandon] Staley has been with those guys, whether it's Chicago, Denver, and then obviously, Brandon has taken that to LA. I think a lot of teams in the NFL, you can go you can go back to the Seattle Seahawks back in 2012 and back with the Richard Sherman's and the Kam Chancellor’s. - trying to disguise is a big element of what a defense can do. At the end of the day, what's the defense trying to do? Trying to create distractions for the quarterback and distractions for the signal caller. I think if a defense can try and do that, they can obviously present some problems for not only the quarterback, but the offensive line, running backs, receivers. Obviously, the Chargers try and do that a lot. They give a lot of different looks, they're very well coached. You can tell that they’re watching their tape there's a lot of similarities, like you said to the Vic Fangio style defense.

Q: Without having a tight ends coach on staff, how have you all emphasized blocking so far?

Coach Lombardi: “Obviously, those guys are working really hard, they’re with the offensive line every single day, whether it's an individual period or the run game meetings, whatever that is. I think at the end of the day, as a coaching staff we try and pour everything from everybody into each position group and try to go over certain things that is specific for them. So, whether that's me going over things with the whole offense, whether that's Coach Carmen [Bricillo] going over things with the offensive line, but there are certain things that you can go and attack with a specific thing, position group. Yeah, we don't have a tight end coach by title, but at the end of the day we're all trying to pour into that group, and they've put a lot of time in with not only the offensive line coaches, but with myself and the other skills coaches to try and get them up to speed. And you're right, obviously the tight ends are a big part in the in the run blocking and trying to adapt in terms of that. Because then at the end of the day, if a tight end can't block then they’re basically a receiver.”

Q: There's a running narrative out there that Ameer Abdullah is James White. What do you say about that?

Coach Lombardi: “I think Ameer Abdullah is Ameer Abdullah. He's a guy that came in league in Detroit and then Minnesota and then obviously last year in Carolina. He was a young player from Nebraska trying to figure himself out and trying to adapt his skill set. James White was on a team that I previously coached on, and he did a certain number of things. What is Ameer Abdullah’s role? I think it's whatever he makes it. I think he's done a really good job of coming in here, taking the playbook, taking the coaching, and then trying to go out there and get better every single day. I'm very pleased with what Ameer has been able to do. Phenomenal person, Phenomenal human being and really fun to coach.”

Q: What's your overall assessment of the offensive line?

Coach Lombardi: “Like any other group, they're trying to get better, trying to work hard. I'm really excited to watch those guys play on Sunday. They're going to come out there and give everything they’ve got. I think you guys saw that in the preseason. They play hard and they compete. If we have a bunch of guys on the roster, like that will be just fine. I'm excited to watch those guys play on Sunday.”

Q: Ervin Johnson once told me that when your best players take the coaching, it makes the team better. How does it make the team better when your stars want it?

Coach Lombardi: “I think that's a great question. At the end of the day, any good football player wants to be coached, and any good coach wants to coach. I think that's the fun part about this thing, and it's not one way. I think that every single player has a certain feeling or a certain assessment of how to do things. Then they can bring that up to us as coaches and we can tell them, ‘Hey, that's a good idea let's try that,’ or, ‘You know what, why don't we try this way,’ and you find a middle ground somewhere. I think that's the really fun part. It's a collective, I would say, thinking, and at the end of the day players respect honesty and honest criticism. They respect that, and they want that and that's how they get better.”

Q: How much is the benefits of Maxx [Crosby] and Chandler [Jones] in terms of preparing for [Joey] Bosa?

Coach Lombardi: “Maxx and Chandler are unique pass rushers and they do present a lot of problems in terms of the defensive line. Our tackles had their hands full this camp. In terms of [Joey] Bosa and [Khalil] Mack, those are two elite pass rushers that we obviously have to be ready for. They do a lot of different things; they move around a lot. Their speed to power, they rush the edge, they play on the inside, they use their hands. Every single time they go to the stadium, teams are trying to take them away, and they're obviously able to get production someway, somehow. We have to be ready for them, and they do a phenomenal job. They're truly well coached, their pass rush is very coordinated. If we do a good job of just following our rules and doing our job, I look forward to watching us play against them.” 

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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Hondo Carpenter
HONDO CARPENTER

Hondo S. Carpenter Sr. is an award-winning sports journalist who brings decades of experience to his role as editor and publisher, and beat writer for our Las Vegas Raiders and the NFL coverage. Carpenter is a member of the PFWA, FWAA, and USBWA.