Josh McDaniels Talks Las Vegas Raiders Post Cuts

The Las Vegas Raiders GM Dave Ziegler has established the initial 53-man roster, and Josh McDaniels discussed the latest on the Silver and Black

HENDERSON, Nev.-Josh McDaniels and the Las Vegas Raiders have a settled initial 53-man roster thanks to the hard work of GM Dave Ziegler.

McDaniels spoke at length about that roster, cuts, and the state of the Silver and Black.

You can watch the entire interview below, and read the entire transcript:

Head Coach Josh McDaniels

Opening Statement...

Head Coach Josh McDaniels: “Before you start asking questions, obviously a long process to get here, and the last few days are difficult days, we understand that - around the league, we're not unique obviously. We appreciate the effort, the competition, the commitment that everybody that we've had in camp, that we've had all year long has shown us. We had a great group of people here. Looking forward to getting a bunch of them back on the practice squad and continuing our process of developing them as Raiders, which we're hopeful that will pan out the way we want it to here shortly. But this is always one of those days - or the last couple of days - (that) are a little difficult, but I think our guys handled it great. Like I said, we've got 53 guys now and it'll be a process. Obviously it'll change many times between now and the end of the season. We're continuing to grind through this. I'm looking forward to practicing today.”

Q: In contemplating Alex Leatherwood over the last couple days, what was not happening for him that led to your decision?

Coach McDaniels: “We've talked about competition since we came here in every position group and trying to give every player an opportunity to earn his job and to earn his role, whatever that role may be - some are bigger than others. We felt like we did that. We gave everybody an opportunity to go out there and play and really perform. There's a lot of tough decisions that you make across the roster, and you hope you get them all right. We're not perfect at that, so hopefully we did the best we could for our team, and we tried to make the decisions that we thought would help us going forward. (I) wish Alex [Leatherwood] nothing but the best. He did everything he could here to try to earn his role here. Like I said, I wish him the best as he goes forward.”

Q: Could you talk about the four free agents working their way onto the roster?

Coach McDaniels: “Sometimes you say it and maybe people hear it and let it go out the other ear, but it's really not about how you got here, it's about what you do when you get here. Those guys - you've seen them - they’ve been out there every day first of all, they're durable; they've performed when they've had their opportunities; they've improved; they work really hard and it's important to them. We've got a lot of players that were vying for a lot of spots obviously, and those four guys came here and really just put their head down and continued to get better and make progress. And they've all shown the ability to help us and continue to compete on fourth down, in the kicking game. There's a lot of reasons why you try to put together a roster that's diverse and those types of things, but those guys have all earned the opportunity that they have in front of them, and they're going to continue to have to earn it. We talk about that too - the competition doesn't end today or yesterday, you've got to continue to earn that. Those guys have definitely shown the attitude and the effort to be able to do that.”

Q: Can you talk about what went into the Trayvon [Mullen] trade?

Coach McDaniels: “Again, just trying to do what we think is the best for the team at this point in time. We've had some guys that have shown up at that position and really done some good things. Sam [Webb] is one of them. Hard choices sometimes you have to make based on total numbers and what you're going to keep at a certain spot, but just felt like it was an opportunity for us to add something. He'll have a fresh start in Arizona, and again, wish him the best of luck too.”

Q: Does this seem more like 'your 53’ after making roster cuts?

Coach McDaniels: "I've really tried to stay away from that concept, because I think it's our team. First of all, I have a tremendous amount of respect for everybody that was here before and what they've done. We have a lot of great players that are here, that work really hard, great character and really do all the right things here that we didn't have anything to do with putting here. That's really not something that's on the top of my head or the tip of my tongue, and I don't think Dave [Zielger] and I have talked about that at all. We're obviously grateful for the players that are here; we had a lot of good ones here before we got here, and we've tried to improve the team if we could in any way that we could. I'm excited about the group that we have, I know that, and I'm looking forward to continuing to work with them.”

Q: With some guys like Sam Webb and DJ Turner that are fighting to make the team, how much joy does it bring you to be able to tell them that they’ve made the roster?

Coach McDaniels: "Look, they've earned it, so I think it's gratifying for them. I think the coaches have done a good job of trying to develop each one of their players in their room and you're happy for them. I mean, that's one of the best things about our job, when you see one of the players have success. There's nothing more important than that. We work hard to try to give them an opportunity to succeed in their roles, whatever those roles might be, and when they have success, we're all happy for them. I know the team is. And again I can't overstate this, but we have to continue to push and try to compete and get better. It's a tough league, and you can't relax, you can't rest on your laurels, you can't feel like it's over. You have to keep competing and keep getting better. That's why we think a big part of improvement is competition. So the competition doesn't end yesterday or today. It might be a little different because we don't have as many guys, but they're still going to be competing for roles. With the flexibility that the league has offered us with the rules – being able to bring people up and down and those kinds of things – I don't really look at it like we just have 53. We have 53 plus we have the practice squad, which is as big as it's ever been. I'm looking forward to coaching all these guys. We see them as one team not two different groups."

Q: How did you go about determining the numbers in the running back room? What did Brittain Brown show you that earned him a roster spot?

Coach McDaniels: "I don't think we go in with a predetermined number. Really what you try to do is keep the best guys that you can on the roster that have earned it. So sometimes it's five running backs, sometimes it might be four. And that number might change as we go through the year, as you’re all aware. It just so happened we felt pretty good about the group that we put together. They've all showed an ability to perform either on first, second, third down and in many cases fourth down. I'm excited about coaching those guys. And Brittain [Brown] – he just came in and he's grinded away and learned, improved, worked hard. When he had his opportunities in games, he did well, and he's competed really hard in the kicking game. I can't say enough about a lot of the young guys we have in terms of the way they came in and approached this. They've earned the opportunity that they have in front of them. They've earned it."

Q: You’ve said it doesn't matter how you get here. A guy like Sam Webb comes from a D-II school. What can you say about the guy, being able to grind as hard as he had to get to this level and then stick on the roster?

Coach McDaniels: "Like I said, he deserves all the credit, those guys all do. I think that once they embrace the opportunity in front of them and they realize that it doesn't matter how I got here, it's just matters that I'm here, I'm one of 90 guys competing to try to make it, then it's just about work. I think Sam [Webb] did a good job of putting his head down and really trying to grind. A lot of our young players have recognized the change between college football and professional football in that every minute of every day you have to be really locked in and really focused on - whether it's a meeting or a walkthrough or a practice period - there's nothing that's unimportant that we're trying to cover. Some of these guys may have been able to get by with their ability and their talent, but they're all good at this level and everybody that we play is good. So they've learned that, sometimes the hard way. Over the last three, four months they've had to go through some growing stages. I think it speaks to him. He's really put his head down and worked and he's earned the opportunity, and he's going to continue to have to earn it."

Q: You only have eight offensive linemen on your 53-man, how soon do you anticipate adding a ninth, and what's the process now finding who that player is going to be?

Coach McDaniels: "I don't anticipate at any point in time - I don't have an expectation at this point. Like I said, it's eight plus whatever the practice squad is going to be, which like I said, hopefully here in the next so many minutes we'll be able to find out exactly how that all sorted out and everything else. Certainly you don't want just a lineman on the team for practice purposes, etc., you're going to need more depth, which we'll have. But when it's right, when it's necessary, when it's the right person, when we feel like it's the right thing to do for the team, then we would put somebody up. If we felt like the right thing to do was to not do that and carry them on the practice squad and then approach the roster that way, then we would do it. No preset expectation of when or if that will change, we're just going to kind of go through it here the next few days, and then Dave [Ziegler] and his crew - it will be it'll be a continual process as we go through the year."

Q: Can you just walk us through the process when you're talking with your assistant coaches on which players stayed and which did not?

Coach McDaniels: "They're obviously very well aware of all the things that they see on a certain player, on a given player in their position group. Nobody spends more time with them than their position coach, so to try to gather the information about how they are in meetings, how they are in the walkthrough, how they are at practice, how they are when they're paying attention to the game on the sideline, questions that they're getting asked from those players - those kinds of things are important to us as we're learning everything we can about the player. We don't wait until two days ago to have those conversations, we've talked about the roster many times throughout the course of the offseason and training camp so we have a pretty good picture of what's happening, where they're at with their development and how they're coming along. They're a huge part of the process clearly, because like I said, nobody in the building spends more time with the players than they do."

Q: What’s the latest with Darren Waller and the situation with his new agent?

Coach McDaniels: "Darren [Waller] is good. Darren is good to go. You'll see him today. I don't really know anything about that whole thing, the whole situation yet. But no, he'll be out there today and excited about kind of moving forward here with our whole group and trying to get guys in positions where we feel like they're going to be as we head into the opening week next week. So just excited."

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