Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast Looks Ahead to the Los Angeless Chargers, and More

Our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast features a look ahead to the Silver and Black invasion of Allegiant Stadium Southwest and SoFi Stadium and takes a tour around the National Football League.

Las Vegas Raiders QB Gardner Minshew / Darrell Craig Harris, Sports Illustrated

The Las Vegas Raiders are heading to Los Angeles this weekend for the season's first game, where they will take on the Los Angeles Chargers.

As always, we will be there.

The Silver and Black are three days from their first game week of the season, and Raider Nation hopes that all of the offseason hard work will be rewarded with 2024 success.

Our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast features a look ahead to the Silver and Black invasion of Allegiant Stadium Southwest and SoFi Stadium and takes a tour around the National Football League.

You can watch the entire podcast below:

Antonio Pierce, the Las Vegas Raiders Coach, spoke today, and below is a transcript of everything he said.

Q: You guys obviously know the Chargers well. What do you look for when you look at a Jim Harbaugh coached team?

Coach Pierce: "A well-coached team, physical, get after it. Everywhere he goes, he wins. Ultimate respect for [Jim] Harbaugh and what he's done in the past, both in the collegiate and professionally."

Q: How much does it change the preparation process? You know what Jim Harbaugh's done in the past including the college, but it's a new staff, how much do you change that preparation process?

Coach Pierce: "I think it's just a little difficult this time, because we haven't seen anything on film. In preseason, they didn't play any of their starters, a lot of guys didn't show up on tape. So, you have to go back into the archives, right? You have a little bit of Michigan, you have maybe some Baltimore, some Niners stuff you can look at. But at the end of the day, we're going to have to make some adjustments in the game, and that's what we're prepared to do."

Q: Any update on Brock Bowers, is he going to be at practice?

Coach Pierce: "Yes, he's going to be at practice ready to go. We’re good to go."

Q: You mentioned having to make adjustments. You've coached almost double-digit games now as a head coach, what have you learned the most about that process, about what it takes to pull off those adjustments in games?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah, just you have to be prepared, and you have to think ahead. I mean, there's a lot of things that's going to come up in this game, either through personnel, scheme, a player with, 'What's his role', and then you find out at halftime. And that's what we really spent the last two weeks on, even before this upcoming week. Going into the Niners, we were already kind of dialed in on the Chargers. I think, for all of us as a staff, and myself included, just to keep pounding away on film and go back as far as we can. And you don't want to chase ghosts, right? You don't go back and look at the 2011 season with [Jim] Harbaugh, but maybe you do. And those two gentlemen have been around each other, him and Greg Roman. So, with any little tidbits we can do, we have a pretty good staff upstairs that does a great job of breaking down film. And then, listen, at the day, you have to make the adjustments, and the players have to be able to adapt to it."

Q: Did you guys select team captains yet?

Coach Pierce: "We'll probably do that later on this week."

Q: Is there a difference for you personally being a permanent coach in your first game this weekend versus the games you coached last year as interim?

Coach Pierce: "No, I'm approaching the exact same way, to be honest. I mean, when I got the interim, I wasn't trying to give it up. So, in my head I was permanent. I know what the tag said. So no, no different than my approach. I do have more time prepared, though, obviously, when that happened last year, I was in a 72–96-hour window to get ready for a game. This has been a lot different, preparing, going through a whole calendar year, going through the off season, going through training camp, just the process with [Tom] Telesco as well as with ourroster, and really, more importantly, our coordinators,right? Just coming up like, 'What do we want to be? What's our identity, what's our DNA? What do we want it to look like and sound like when you guys watch us play on Sundays?'"

Q: You talked about the respect you have for Coach Harbaugh and you guys were both linked to thisjob during the off season. Do you internalize that different from a coach's perspective now, where maybe as a player, that would be bulletin board material, further motivate you as a player, and it's different now as a coach?

Coach Pierce: "No, ultimate perspective I'm getting – if it's between me and [Jim] Harbaugh, that's not a bad thing. AP is standing here, though."

Q: Will Brock Bowers be back at practice and is he expected to be ready to go for Sunday?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah, ready to go."

Q: Your career has taken a much different trajectory; you were all about the media at one point. What ultimately helped your decision for coaching? Also, you interned at Howard Stern, what do you remember about that?

Coach Pierce: "Howard Stern? I don't think we can say it in this room, we got to have a happy hour. No, listen, the Howard Stern deal was great. I was doing a weekly show with NFL radio on Sirius radio throughout the season when I played for the Giants after I won the Super Bowl. I just talked to them about media stuff, and I interned. So, I did Jamie Foxx and some other ones and then they said, what about Howard Stern? I'm like, wow, that's different, that's a different fan base. And it was cool, because the first day was really behind the scenes, kind of just getting to know how everything works via radio and how Howard Stern operates in his production meetings. And then, when I got behind the camera, it was special. But he's a dynamic individual, very sharp, very calculated in how he does things. Learned a lot from him, kind of got me to the urge to get into media. And why I got into media, why I stopped? I mean, I played in New York City, had a lot of cameras and mics in front of my face. Played with Tiki Barber and [Michael] Strahan, who got into media right away as well, good friends of mine. And I had an injury with my neck, couldn't play no more, had a lot of opportunities, so I jumped to that and putting on makeup and looking at the camera for eight years was pretty cool in the AC unit. But I missed being in the locker room, missed competing, missing that fire burning in my stomach, that competitive drive. I got the opportunity to coach in high school at Long Beach Poly, and the rest is history. I had opportunities to go to the league several times and just wasn't ready because I had other things going on business wise. And when the opportunity came, I went full force."

Q: After your first game as interim coach against the Giants, now coming back to LA against the Chargers, is that giving you any other kind of special meaning for you being that you're facing like kind of a home crowd, home team in LA?

Coach Pierce: "No, it is cool going back home. But it's not about Antonio Pierce, it's about the Raiders. We're trying to get our first divisional win against a really good opponent, who's going to be motivated, well coached, physical, tough. I mean, we got to bring our hard hats. So, this is not about me going back home. I could go back home whenever I want to in the offseason, this is a business trip and that's how we're approaching it."

Q: Any update on Jackson Powers-Johnson? Is he playing on Sunday?

Coach Pierce: "I mean, he's ready to go, he's practicing. We'll see how that works out."

Q: In the past you talked about your welcome to the NFL moment. Do you remember your first week one as an NFL player? Just kind of like what's going through your mind and specifically how it kind of relates to your players this week now.

Coach Pierce: "Yeah, on the punt team Tim Dwight ran back the punt return, I thought I’d get fired on the spot with Marty Schottenheimer. So, that was my welcome to the NFL moment, even though it wasn't my fault. I'm out there with the other 10 gentlemen. But that was a little scary moment. I think for all these gentlemen, especially our rookies and some of our young players, man, I think the cool thing about our team and our group is how they rally around one another and kind of set the expectation of what to expect but you don't know what to expect. I always say Week 1, opening week of the playoffs and the Super Bowl, those are two different speeds, those are a lot of different speeds of football. And it really shows up for some of the younger guys, and hopefully we prep them the way we prepare and practice. And I think they got some really good reps in the preseason, so now they'll just be amped up a little bit, and the guy across from you is the real deal."

Q: About getting those good reps in the preseason, how excited are you to really see that starting defensive unit really come together in Week One?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah, it's good. I mean, I think you look at the preseason and everybody's going to look at some negatives and things that happened, but I think more importantly, it was a great opportunity for us to gel and get those things out the way early and make those adjustments. 'Listen, what you think you were doing in practice, that's not working, you need to do it this way,' or, 'Did you understand what we're asking you to do here technique wise or the fundamental or what the scheme was asking you to do?' So when you can put that on film, that gives us a great opportunity to teach off of that. But I am excited, it's a very motivated group in that in that room with Patrick Graham. He's done an outstanding job, done an outstanding job. Now we're starting to turn that heat up a little bit. The pot is starting to boil a little bit, starting to simmer a little bit for these guys, and I trust our defense staff to make sure we're ready to play on Sunday."

Q: You guys placed a lot of emphasis on starting the season fast. In your experience, what does it take to do that?

Coach Pierce: "Starting the season fast, you can't beat yourself first and foremost, especially on the road, if I can start there. We're on the road, can't beat ourselves. We've got to handle adversity. We talked about adjustments, that's going to come up as well. Got to play penalty free there as well, can't turn the ball over and good third-down and red-zone defense. All the things that we talked about and we worked on in this offseason and what we started with. But more importantly man, is less is more. I've probably said that before to you gentlemen, sometimes when you're calling the game as a coordinator or as a head coach, you want to throw everything out there in Week One. And let's be realistic, you're still like in that training camp, preseason mode now, right? Because not a lot of reps are there. So, allow your players to play fast, don't sit there and make it a thinking game. These gentlemen are physically the one percent of the one percent of the world. Don't allow it to slow down mentally for them, because you've got all these great schemes and ideas. So, a lot of players to play fast, that's going to be the key for us."

Q: Tom Telesco said that this is a completely different team than last year. In what ways would you say that they're different?

Coach Pierce: "The roster, the mentality, how we're starting, the expectations. We expect to win."

Q: What have you seen in Gardner Minshew since you gave him the starting quarterback spot three weeks ago?

Coach Pierce: "More vocal. I think when you're battling in the quarterback position, you've got two guys there that were splitting time of who's talking, who's leading the pack. This is Gardner's [Minshew] Show. He's running the show."

Q: Can you just talk about Christian Wilkins and what he'sreally added to that defensive line, and what you think he'll add to the whole defense in general?

Coach Pierce: "Yeah man, it's Maxx Crosby inside. Maxx shows up at six, Christian is here at six. Maxx leaves at five, he's here at five. You watch him practice, I mean, it's a thing of beauty when you have two of your best players that work as hard as anybody on the team. But more importantly, he's a perfectionist. I mean, he wants to prove - and we all do that, when you get paid and even myself, I get this position, I want to prove I deserve to get this job. Well, he's already done that, and that's why he's here. But he wants to be the best. You know, he's trying to be the best, no different than a lot of our players on the team. But what I love about him is the teammate. He's a great teammate. He's a good person, man. You see him bring over a lot of these young defensive tackles and work with them on the side, not selfish at all. He wants to win.”

Q: In your experiences, what's the advantages or disadvantages from calling the game from the booth? And are there any conversations of having Luke Getsy upstairs or downstairs?

Coach Pierce: “That's a good question. I mean, Patrick Graham's career started on the field, and last year he made a change, and I think it was beneficial to all of us. Last year, when I took over, Bo [Hardegree] called a game downstairs and then we moved him upstairs, and that was beneficial. So, Luke is used to calling it downstairs, and I'm not going to change that until we need to.”

Q: You guys showed last year in the last four games of the season with Zamir White a stout running game. How important is that for that to kind of carry over day one against the Chargers?

Coach Pierce: “Yeah. I mean, I think early on in the season, everybody wants to establish to run and stop the run. But I think for Zamir and our offensive line, it would be good, just to establish what we want it to look like coming off the rock, the wide zone, getting the edge, hitting it downhill. Zamir came back more physical, more explosive, bigger, stronger, faster. He didn't get a lot of touches in the preseason. It's just how it worked out because of the quarterback deal, but he'll have plenty of opportunities going forward.

Q: What are your thoughts on the league having a game in Brazil and also the NFL’s emphasis more on streaming the product to the fans?

Coach Pierce: “Yeah, I think the Brazil game is pretty col. I wish we were in Brazil right now, the guys do too. But no, I played in the first game internationally with the [New York] Giants when we played in London. I thought that was a good experience, it was different. It’s cool to see where the NFL wants to go, right? America, done. Number one sport. But to get that international, you got to go outside our boundaries and get that fan base going. I’m looking forward to watching those two teams play. And I think streaming, to answer your question, just look at what we got here in this room. There are only three cameras in the back, and everybody has a phone. That’s just the way it’s going now.

Q: Kickoff returns went from 82 percent to 74 to 57 percent by Week 3 of the preseason. Do you expect that trend to continue? Do you think teams are going to try to kick it out the end zone?

Coach Pierce: “Yeah, I just think each team is going to be different. If you got good returners, you might not want to kick it to those guys. Just spot the ball at the 30 and go play football. I think it’s going to change each and every week, but we’ll approach it differently based off our opponent. But for us, we do like our returners and we’d love to bring that ball out.

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