Las Vegas Raiders Josh Mcdaniels' Latest Assessment

The Las Vegas Raiders Josh McDaniels discusses the state of the Silver and Black, after watching the film of a win over the New England Patriots.

HENDERSON, Nev.-The Las Vegas Raiders finished the pre-season 4-0 and will have their roster cut down to 53 players later this afternoon.

After their final win over the New England Patriots, Josh McDaniels watched the film, and the next day spoke about the state of the Silver and Black.

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

Head Coach Josh McDaniels

Q: Where do things stand over at right tackle and swing tackle and really across the board on the offensive line?

Head Coach Josh McDaniels: "We have a lot of things to discuss I think in the next so many days. We played a lot of people there. We played a lot of people across the board. So I think this is the part of the year where some of those decisions are going to start to settle in here. We have a few more days here to go over - we have a lot of tape to digest here in the last week here that I think was really important for us to gain that information. A lot of guys have put some things on tape that are very competitive, and then there's certainly things we can do better as an offensive line as a whole. But there will be no big announcements today on that there's a lot to sort through here."

Q: What has been your impression of Sam Webb and Luke Masterson and how much of an impact have those two made in their campaigns here throughout the preseason?

Coach McDaniels: "There's a lot of guys obviously, young players, that came here after the draft, that - again, we've tried to say this since the beginning - it doesn't matter how you get here, what matters is what you do when you're here. Luke [Masterson] and Sam [Webb] and Darien [Butler], we have a number of guys that have really showed well for themselves and made some progress. They all have a long way to go, because they're very young and in many ways inexperienced, but the fact that they were durable enough to stay on the field. They've taken a lot of reps, they've played a lot of football, they've used all four preseason games to try to benefit themselves in terms of making progress in each phase that they're in. But I'm very pleased with the effort, the attention to detail and the progress that a lot of these guys have made here over the last month."

Q: Coach can you talk about the intensity that your team played with in preseason game number four? And then a guy like Clelin Ferrell, who missed a lot of time and training camp, looks like he played really well in that game last night. What did you think from those guys?

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, I thought the energy was really good. And playing in our stadium, it's easy to see why they'd be excited to do that. We have a great atmosphere there, fans do a great job of producing that for us. I thought that the entire team showed up ready to go, and they've done that since we got here, I mean honestly since the first day of OTAs. They've been prepared and excited to go out there and work. They were excited to work this week against the Patriots in practice, and then certainly excited for their opportunity to play last night. I think that's been kind of a hallmark of this group. They've got great leadership and guys that really want to come in there and do it right. And Cle [Clelin Ferrell] specifically, it was good to get Cle back out there. I saw him play some snaps in some different packages yesterday, and that's always good to get a guy out there and have some opportunity to play in the preseason and do some things that we want to see him do. It was good to get him back out there."

Q: Sticking with Clelin Ferrell - skill-set wise what does he bring to what you guys want to accomplish on defense?

Coach McDaniels: "He's a physical guy, and we obviously want to put a tough, physical defense out there on the field, and Clelin [Ferrell] has demonstrated the ability to do that in more than one spot. He set the edge a handful of times last night, which is a good thing to see. He was involved in the pass rush some, dropped into coverage actually a couple of times. There's a lot of things we ask those guys to do on the edge, Cle [Clelin Ferrell] has definitely got to try to make up for a little bit of lost time here, but that's okay. That's what these practices going forward will be about for him. He's been involved in each meeting, he's paid attention, he understands what his roles are that we're asking him to play, and like I said, it was good to get him back out there. In the limited number of opportunities he had last night, you could see some of the things that we're looking forward to with Clelin."

Q: When you and Dave Ziegler are putting the roster together how much emphasis is put on how much it may cost if you let a guy go?

Coach McDaniels: "Look, there's a lot of factors that go into trying to do the right thing for the team, but at the end of the day, if we keep to the goal of putting together the best football team that we can that will help us win the most games and make the decisions based off of those factors, then that will be our guideline. Certainly there's an element of that that goes into it. We all know that is there, some different than others depending on who you're talking about. But at the end of the day, our job is to try to produce the best roster that we can that can help us win the most games, and we're going to try to do that. At the same time, it's always a work in progress. The roster is not set on Tuesday or Wednesday for the next four months, five months. It could change obviously, and it will change as we go through the course of the year, but we're going to do the very best we can here in the next few days."

Q: There's been some things out there regarding Alex Leatherwood, his future with the Raiders. I was just curious how you thought he got through training camp and the preseason, and maybe about where things may stand with him moving forward?

Coach McDaniels: "Alex [Leatherwood] played a lot of football. He was basically out there every day and durable. Look, like I said earlier on the call, our offensive line as a whole, there's definitely some good things, some things we've made progress on and there's definitely some areas where we can probably do better and improve. That's what this time of the year is for. Alex took a lot of reps, and he's played a lot of football for us. I think he knows our system a lot more now than he did in April, and that's true for every offensive player on our team. Like I said, we're going to use the next few days here to sort it out. But certainly he's in the mix in all those conversations. We feel like we do have some quality there. So, having tough decisions to make because you feel like you've got a lot of guys competing for them is a good problem to have."

Q: I know that this has been preseason games, but how much of a sense of pride did it give you as well as the team to 4-0 for the first time in franchise history?

Coach McDaniels: "Well, we talk about competing and our whole focus since we got together and we were able to go out there on the grass and practice has been really about competition, whether it's at an individual position or across the ball against a different group, offense versus defense. These guys have competed every single day, and what we've basically tried to do is get them to understand that competition makes us all better. If we're trying to win a drill, if we're trying to win a period, there's nothing wrong with that. The number one fundamental that we need to try to be really good at from the beginning of the season towards the end of the season is the ability to win. So it's never a bad thing when you come out with more points on the scoreboard than the other team. We will never take the field with that not being our number one goal. Every game we play, whether it's a preseason game or regular season game, we're only going to go there and show up to do the one thing that we're trying to do every week and that's to win. I'm proud of the team's effort and competitiveness throughout the preseason, and now we're looking forward to the regular season."

Q: Coach, you've really embraced Raider Nation and also just being a Raiders Head Coach. What was it like to have all that alumni in the building last night just being honored, the guys who planted the roots for the silver and black?

Coach McDaniels: "Really special. I got a chance to talk to a few of them yesterday, I will get a chance to see a few more of them tonight. What a blessing to have this kind of rich tradition and history, and then you can see Mr. Davis's commitment to them. We have that moniker, "Once a Raider, always a Raider," and it's obviously true here. So those people that laid the groundwork and the foundation for us, they've set the standard. We know what the commitment to excellence is because we saw them do it and lay it out there for us years and years ago. I thought the guys are really excited to have an opportunity to perform in front of them yesterday. You saw a couple of our guys celebrate down there towards the end zone where they were all at. This is a special place, and the more I've been here, the more I've understood that. I've tried to embrace that in every way that I could. I think our staff and our players do the same thing. But it wouldn't be here if it wasn't for those 300 some guys that were here last night. They did all the dirty work and all the hard work long ago to show us exactly what being a Raider means. It was our honor to have an opportunity to compete in front of them and have them there and try to do the right thing and win the game for them. So, it was great to have them here."

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