Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast on the Battle for QB1, AP and His Staff, Great DL

Our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast offers you a look at the QB battle, Antonio Pierce and his staff, the greatness of the Silver and Black defensive line, and much more.

Las Vegas Raiders Aidan O'Connell, and Gardner Minshew from Mandatory Mini-Camp 2024 / 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 you a look at the QB battle, Antonio Pierce and his staff, the greatness of the Silver and Black defensive line, and much more.

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: You did an interesting thing in assembling your staff of older guys with a ton of experience, younger guys with very little. Was that intentional on your part to mix that up the way you did? Coach Pierce: "Yeah, just because of time, technology. You think Marvin Lewis is going to go crazy on that computer and Rob Ryan and Joe Philbin? No. Then you've got some guys that are straight out of college, and some younger guys coming from the college ranks and other places that are really tech savvy. Then you've got guys that has been head coaches, coordinators at different levels and been in different systems. And some systems that we really studied over the last two years prior to me taking over. You look at a guy like Rob Leonard with Baltimore and then Gerald Alexander with Pittsburgh, you're talking about guys that came from organizations and places that played football the right way. And the more intel and people you can grab from those places, the better we are. And more importantly, they're good people. And I think for all of us, and I've talked about it, we always say we've got to coach the players, but coaches need to be coached. And when you have the expertise of a Marvin Lewis, a Joe Philbin, the years of a Rob Ryan - which I'm sure was entertaining conversation yesterday for you guys - how can you pass that up? I'm really excited that they want to be here next to myself and the rest of our staff because they can do other things. Does Marvin Lewis really need to coach? Not really. Joe Philbin, not really. Rob Ryan, I mean they've been in the game 30-plus years, all those gentlemen. So to be in a meeting room and just to hear them talk, and not just always to myself, but to the receiver coach or to our young offensive assistant, whoever it may be, just for them to drop that knowledge is critical. And then you want to see these guys prosper and get opportunities someday to either be in my position, or a coordinator or have their own room."

Q: It's a small sample size, but what have you thought of the quarterbacks in terms of them trying to pick this up and just the just the competition between them? Coach Pierce: "I think they embrace the competition. It's great. I mean, the best part about it, it's a friendly competition. And when I say friendly, we shake hands and kiss babies, but when we go out there, we're trying to both be the guy and you love to see that, and our team sees it. And I said this probably early on in offseason, when you have competition - some people see competition at the quarterback position as like, 'Oh my God, we're scared.' No, I love it. Because the rest of our team, we're looking at them. So what does everybody else on our team have to do? They have to compete. And what we now have is competition throughout our entire roster. There's competition in the running back room. That defensive line room, there are some boys in here, there's some grown men in there that can play football. We're not going to be able to keep all of them. Our linebacker room, our DBs, I mean there's some guys here. Seeing the competition at quarterback has risen the level of competition overall on our team."

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