Answering Your Las Vegas Raiders Questions: McDaniels Future?

Each week we take time to answer your emails and questions about your beloved Las Vegas Raiders, and many of you had questions about Josh McDaniels' future.

HENDERSON, Nev.--The Las Vegas Raiders have one of the most passionate fan bases in all of the professional sports.

Each week we endeavor to answer the emails and questions that you send us. So let's get right at this week's mailbag:

Hondo, Josh McDaniels must go.  It was a horrible hire.  Mark Davis needs to cut our losses and move on.  Kari Goodman

First of all, I respect that unlike many who feel like you but resort to personal attack, you didn't.  That is why I selected your email.  Secondly, I totally disagree.  

Josh McDaniels was a failure in Denver.  He is not the same coach now, and I have no clue how you can have that assessment five games in.  You have every right to be disappointed, but many of you were furious last season, and the team still made the playoffs.

I personally believe that Josh McDaniels is a very good coach.  When you look at the franchises that have had sustained success, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the New England Patriots, for example, you see consistency in leadership.  While I certainly think five games is a way too small sample size, I get the frustration of fans.  I believe that Josh McDaniels is the best long-term answer for this franchise, and I respectfully think while your frustration is warranted, your calling for his job is wrong.

Hondo, I am so tired of the same old crap every year from my Raiders.  They tell us they believe in, "Just Win Baby," and then they don't, enough is enough.  We will never win until Mark Davis sells our team.  Craig B.

Craig, I love the passion of the Silver and Black fans.  It is why, in my opinion, they are the best fan base in the National Football League.  Having said that, I think your thoughts that the franchise, "Will never win until Mark Davis sells our team," or crazy.  He has taken this team from the bottom of the heap and given them the best training center, and stadium in the league.  He has brought in competent and excellent football minds.  He is willing to spend any and all the money his leadership needs.  I respect you but wholeheartedly disagree.

Hondo, when are you going to take your fat (buttocks) to a press conference and ask a tough question?  All of the Raiders' media are schills for the team.  You all suck as much as the franchise.

I appreciate you keeping it clean, yet still putting your name on the email.  I believe we ask many tough questions.  We are with these people every day, we can ask anything we want, but you don't think it is important to be civil?  Let's talk about tough questions.

Can we agree that the Raiders' defense, especially against Travis Kelce in the red zone left much to be desired?  Of course, and I can tell you that the Raiders were frustrated.  They did an excellent job of controlling him outside the red zone but totally failed in it.  Here is my question to Josh McDaniels about it, and what I feel was a frank and honest answer:

Q: Travis Kelce had a great game, but going in, what was the plan on how to stop him?

Coach McDaniels: “I mean, it was a very unique game, obviously for him. And the plan was, in many ways, effective between the 20s. We hit him, we jammed him, we doubled him. We tried to take him away a number of different ways. And unfortunately, we didn't do a good enough job inside the 10-yard line of executing the same stuff that we were executing, I'd say fairly well at times, during the course of the game in the field. And so, I think it's a matter of execution. Seven catches for 25 yards and all the touchdowns. And it was like the yards didn't kill you, but the critical plays in the red zone were the ones that got us. So, as tight as we were at times on him in the field, as much as we bumped him and disrupted him and tried to get [Patrick] Pat [Mahomes] from really being on him and staying on him in the field, we didn't do a good enough job of that in the red zone. And then of course, Pat extended a couple of those plays. And then the doubles kind of – I don't want to say fell apart – but they weren't as clean because he was able to extend the play and add more time to the pocket. So, this is a hard lesson to learn because you do it right in the field and that's great, but at the end of the day, what matters the most is that we keep him off the scoreboard. And he was obviously an integral part of what they do before our game in the red zone, and then he continued to do that and made some big plays for them. And, again, credit to him and Pat."

Here is another question I asked this week of Josh McDaniels.  "You said that each year is a new team and they have to win.  I believe that in your four losses, you beat yourselves.  What does this team have to do to learn to win?

“I think it's becoming more clear to them. Again, I think experience and actually getting it done under pressure gives you confidence that you can do it again. And we did some of those things a week ago against Denver, and we had our chances yesterday. Nobody can sit here and say we didn't have opportunities last night, that's not a true statement. So, we had every opportunity to really do a good job of trying to win the game, whether that was get further ahead after the first half or come from behind and close the game out somehow, someway on offense at the end of the game. I don't think anybody here is discouraged about the fact that we're not close. I think now it's about, what do we need to do in practice? What do we need to do carry it over to the games to be able to really make the plays that are winning plays at the end so that we have an opportunity to close out a lot of these close games? Because that's what the NFL is, it's a lot of close games every week. And when you start learning how to win them, and finishing them, you start to get a confidence and swagger about yourself, and then when you get in the next one, you feel good about it. So, I don't think there's any shortcut. We got to eliminate the bad stuff. Too many penalties. We didn't turn the ball over, which is a good thing, but too many penalties, untimely penalties on our end that allowed either them to put us in a hole offensively or kept drives alive for them, or in some cases give them an opportunity to extend a drive and score touchdowns. We got to clean some of that stuff up, obviously, because that doesn't help either.”

I have only seen Josh McDaniels since he arrived in Las Vegas angry at one question.  He had every right to be angry at it, as it was a question about something seen in practice, that we in the media are not allowed to disclose, in exchange for being at practice.  Just because I didn't use vulgarity or a personal attack in the question, doesn't make it any less effective, and I think he gave a germane and honest answer.

I realize what you really want is not an honest answer, but just wins.  I get it.  Josh and I are paid to be at the games, you pay to go.  I get that and respect it.

Hondo, you nailed it on Dylan Parham.  He has been great/  You think he has a shot at offensive rookie of the year?  Paul Y.

No, not as an OL, but he has been a stud.

Hondo, I do not get people mad at Derek Carr.  He has been so good.  Why do you think so many hate/and love him?  I have not seen this since Tim Tebow.  

This is a great and fair question.  There are four distinct camps of opinion on Derek Carr..

Camp #1:  The Just Win Baby camp.  They do not care who the QB is.  All they want is wins, and when they don't get them, QB is the most important position so they want him gone.  They could care less who the QB is, they just want to win.  If the Raiders win they want whoever the QB is and if they lose they want whoever the QB is to leave.

Camp #2:  The pro-Derek camp.  These people think he does well.  This is mostly the universal assessment of the NFL, and I believe the majority of Raider Nation. I broke the story that the New England Patriots (When Jon Gruden was here) wanted Derek and so did the Indianapolis Colts, among others. Derek is well-respected in the NFL.  These people, of which I am one, believe in him and his leadership.  In my opinion, this is the largest camp.

Camp #3:  The anti-Derek camp.  These people think that Derek is the main reason that the Las Vegas Raiders lose, and when they win, it is despite him being the coach.  If Derek were to take this team to a Super Bowl and win by throwing for 500-yards, they would say it was great receivers catching bad balls. 

Camp #4:  The hate Derek camp.  Let me say that I think this is a VERY SMALL minority.  They are loud and vocal, but they hate Derek for what he believes in his personal, and faith life.  I DO NOT believe this group is anywhere near the majority, and nor do I think that all the people that despise him feel that way because of his personal beliefs.  While I believe this group is by far the smallest, it is out there.  But I know they are out there.  I have heard from them.

Sadly, the size and passion of the Raider Nation get played by national media who know that fans will click on anything, and they use click-bait to get people to read and make money.

Hondo, I admit I am depressed.  What should I be most encouraged by?  Patrick Adams

There are many good things going on.  But, the NFL is all about wins, and I accept that.  First of all, there are 12 games left in the regular seas.  But here is another.  The OL was solid and in my opinion very good against the Kansas City Chiefs.  Many people were worried.  I asked Josh McDaniels about the emerging OL:

"I really think they're battling, giving Josh and opportunity to get started. Some of the plays – we always talk about keeping the line of scrimmage clean and getting the back an opportunity to hit the hole and have an entry point. And I thought that was some really good blocking done up front. I would add Jakob [Johnson] in there, I would add the jumbo tight end did some really good work for us there. And then Josh makes some great runs. I mean, he sees things that some other backs just may not see. And God blessed him with that ability to do so. And so, I think they've really taken some pressure off of some other people. When you can run the ball for 130, 150 yards, whatever the number is, you make first downs on the ground. It's not every series, it's got to be four, third-down conversions. And I think they've done a really nice job of doing that. I think they're getting better, together. Look, there's always things we have to improve; there's definitely things we can make progress on. But I like how physical they're trying to be. I think they're trying to establish that kind of mentality. And we obviously need to keep doing that going forward."

If you have a question to submit for our next Q/A please send us an email at SpartanNationMail@yahoo.com and put in the subject line Raiders Q/A.

The Raiders have a bye week for Week 6 of the NFL season. They return to action in Week 7 when they host the Houston Texans. That game kicks off at 1:05 p.m. PDT and can be seen on CBS.

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