Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast: Disrespect of Davante, QB Bubble, Importance of AO12, Pierce's Conundrum

Our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast offers a look at the disrespect of Davante Adams, the coming QB bubble in the NFL, the importance of Aidan O'Connell, and the pre-season conundrum for Antonio Pierce

Las Vegas Raiders Davante Adams from Mandatory Mini-Camp in2024 / Noah Scott Fahey, Sports Illustrated

HENDERSON0N, Nev.—The Las Vegas Raiders have officially completed their first OTA and Mandatory Mini-camps of the 2024 season, and all attention is turning to the NFL Training Camp to be held in Costa Mesa, California.

Under the guidance of head coach Antonio Pierce, the Silver and Black have united as a team, from the coaching staff to the players. Their collective optimism and confidence are soaring, and the bar for their performance, if possible, has increased.

Our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast offers a look at the disrespect of Davante Adams, the coming QB bubble in the NFL, the importance of Aidan O'Connell, and the pre-season conundrum for Antonio Pierce

You can watch the entire podcast below:

Coach Antonio Pierce addressed the media after the mandatory mini-camp, and here is a brief transcript of his comments.

Q: How much do you think being a former player, especially at a higher level has really helped you connect with the players? Coach Pierce: "Playing at a high level, I think that gives me the respect and accountability that I can talk to them and they know I'm not BS-ing them. But they also know I'm not going to BS them period as a person. And we talk straight forward, we're direct. There's no gray. We normally say black and white, it's Silver and Black here. And they really do a good job of asking questions. When I'm talking, we get the eye contact, get the head nod. Different people have spoken throughout this offseason. I don't need to wear out the voice. I'm going to be speaking starting July 23 a lot, a lot more. They know my intent. They know my purpose. They know why I'm here and they know I'm here to help them and I'm their biggest fan, but they also know I'm their realest critic. And when it gets real, they're going to hear it direct."

Q: There's been a lot of emphasis on special teams throughout the course of practices and Coach Tom McMahon was pretty fired up about the opportunities. What have you seen so far from that opportunity? Coach Pierce: "Yeah, I'm not doing demonstrations like Coach McMahon, but I really wanted to put an emphasis on that. First of all, we have some really good specialists. Between AJ [Cole] and Daniel [Carlson], I mean we couldn't be more blessed to have those two difference makers there. But obviously, with the new rule, right, it's a learning curve for all of us. We had the officials out here from the National Football League and they were wide-eyed, because nobody's seen this live yet. It looks good in practice, but that first preseason game, I think everybody needs to tune in for the opening kickoff to see what's about to happen, because there's a lot of different variables that could go into it, how it's been officiated, what different special teams coordinators are coming up with ideas. So, I really wanted to emphasize it. But more importantly, we talked about this earlier, the development of this offseason program for me was our younger players and our special teams guy, because that's going to be the core group of our team. You know what Davante [Adams] is going to do, you know what Maxx Crosby is going to do, and Christian Wilkins, but we need to give the guys that are going to make this team on special teams more opportunities to showcase that and give Tom [McMahon] the time to teach."