Raiders McDaniels Entire Training Camp Remarks Today

Coach Josh McDaniels opened the 2023 NFL Training Camp for the Las Vegas Raiders earlier today, and we have his entire comments for you.

HENDERSON, Nev.--The Las Vegas Raiders opened their 2023 NFL Training Camp today, and Coach Josh McDaniels took to the podium to address the media and begin the season.

You can watch his entire comments below., and read the transcript:

Head Coach Josh McDaniels Opening statement:

Coach McDaniels: "Excited just to see the guys here. Just finished our medical meeting, which is a mandatory part of camp every year and we're get ready to do our last bit of that conditioning round with the guys who just reported. But excited to see everybody, obviously a very exciting time here getting ready to go for year two and a lot of work between now and the season, but I know everybody is eager and anxious to get out there."

Q: Jimmy [Garoppolo] passed his physical, are there any restrictions on him at all going into training camp or is it just full go?

Coach McDaniels: "I mean no, there aren't. We'll do what we always do with players who are coming off of any type of rehabilitation, is just we'll do it the right way. It might not be 100 percent of the repetitions first day and etc., but we would never do that with anybody. So, there's a number of players obviously who had things in the spring and making sure that we're just smart about how we re-integrate them to the totality of practice, and training camp is for everybody to get a lot of repetitions anyway. No player at any position would get that kind of a majority of the reps anyhow. So, this is where we have to put in the majority of our time so that we can build fundamentals across the board, build the depth of our football team. So, It shouldn't affect us that much, but excited for him to be out there. I know he's excited to be out there with his teammates too."

Q: Obviously, Jimmy [Garoppolo] is going to be judged by wins and losses. When he went to San Francisco, he won his locker room quickly. And then he comes here and talking to the players this offseason, not at OTA's, not at minicamp, but he won them already out spending time with them, being with them. What is it about Jimmy that allows him to relate so well to his locker room as a leader?

Coach McDaniels: "I think you have to care about the person, and I think Jimmy gives a lot of time and effort into conversations non-football related. I think that would be the same if it was you and I or any other two people trying to get to know one another. It's how much you put into it, how much you care about where they came from, what their family situation is like, where they're at in their life or their career. I think that's important for anybody that's trying to create relationships and especially at the position of quarterback in the NFL, where you want to be a leader on your football team, you have to be an elite communicator on the field. So, to be able to try to do that and establish those kinds of relationships is important. I'll let the player speak for that in terms of how they feel and what he has or hasn't done or anything like that, but I feel comfortable with who he is and in the way he goes about that."

Q: Obviously, Jimmy [Garoppolo] played under you before with the Patriots, but he spent several years in another system. What went into that sort of re-acclimation process with him being in OTAs not relearning it but kind of getting back used to being in your offense?

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, it was a fun process because honestly any player who has played a significant amount of time somewhere else for a coach that I respect tremendously, it's always interesting to hear some of the things that they did or how they called something or other things that maybe we don't do that they did well and he likes. So, it was really a good back and forth in that regard. I think most of the terminology -- I don't want to say it's like riding a bicycle -- but if you spent four years doing something and then you change languages a little bit, you come back to it eventually. You kind of pick back up where you were. So, I don't want to say seamless or not, we'll see together here as we go. But generally speaking, I think the terminology is -- I've said this before -- it's kind of overblown in general. We all run something similar to one another, we just maybe call it a little bit different names. I feel very comfortable with his ability to do that, to speak it, to talk it, to help his teammates, and I'm looking forward to seeing him out there doing it."

Q: You guys made Marcus Peters official yesterday, signing him to the one-year deal. How big of an impact, especially with his history of being able to create turnovers, do you think you'll have on the defense?

Coach McDaniels: "It's an exciting opportunity, and Marcus [Peters] has been a very decorated player for the entirety of his career for the teams that he's played for. He's always been a guy that – I've coached against him a number of times, and when you're playing against him, you always know where he's at, because there's a chance you might not want to throw at him. And again, players earn that opportunity and earn that status, not coaches or anybody else. He's just a very intelligent football player. We had multiple opportunities to sit down and talk with him, very bright, understands the game, really a mature, intelligent guy in terms of defensive structure, coverages, reading route patterns, etc. Very impressed with that, and he wants to be a Raider. So it was exciting for us to be able to make that happen, and I'm excited to put him in with our group, and I know he's eager to get to work."

Q: The situation with Josh Jacobs isn't quite resolved yet, but due to some concerns he had along with the other best running backs in the league, they held a Zoom meeting and seemed to be worried about the value of the running back position not being valued properly. What's your thoughts on their meeting and some of the concerns coming out of that meeting?

Coach McDaniels: "Well obviously I can't speak for anything that happened in the meeting. I obviously wasn't privy to any of that. But look, I respect every player's right to try to do what's best for him. That's why the league is what it is in terms of value and contracts, and those things are personal. We all have to go through them. I understand it. I've said it multiple times this spring. I respect him [Josh Jacobs] tremendously. I have a great deal of respect for him as a player, as a person, what he did for our team last year, and I look forward to seeing him whenever he is here. And I respect that process, too. It's his decision to make, and I know they all have to do what they think is best for them. Like I said, we all have to do those things in our lives, and I have a great deal of respect for him."

Q: Can you talk about Zamir White and Neil Farrell Jr. and what they bring to the table in terms of coming into the sophomore season?

Coach McDaniels: "I mean there's a number of guys obviously who are coming into their second year for us. You mentioned a couple of them, but obviously we have a lot of players who are entering their second year. You hope for that, what you just mentioned. Our job is to try to get them to improve every year, regardless of which year it is two to three, three to four, one to two, four to five, seven to 10, whatever it is. So, we'll try to do the best we can. I know that our guys who are coming into their second year spent a lot of time at the facility this offseason, really invested themselves in a full offseason program. Because when you're a rookie, you come in a little later, about a month later than the veterans do. So, I think a lot of the reasons why you see some of those jumps is they actually get a full year, they actually understand what is OTAs, they understand what is minicamp, they understand what training camp is like. So their understanding, their wisdom, they have some now because they've gone through it. So, looking forward to all those guys getting out there and competing and improving."

Q: What's the latest right now with Josh Jacobs?

Coach McDaniels: "There's nothing – I mean, again, I know Dave [Ziegler] and Tom [Delaney] worked feverishly with his representation last week to do what they could. And again, I've said it before, I respect his decision to ultimately not sign that deal at that point. So right now, I mean it is what it is. There hasn't been much since then, since the deadline and certain things can change, obviously we know that, but that's obviously a lot of his decision, and I respect whatever he chooses to do, that's his choice. I look forward to seeing him when we see him."

Q: Can it change like with Saquon Barkley and the Giants?

Coach McDaniels: "I don't know all the details. I was here doing a bunch of stuff, so I'm not exactly sure the ins and outs on that, but anything can certainly change in that regard. Look, I'm a coach, I'd love to have every one of them here, and that's just obviously a preference of ours so we can work with each player. But when that is we'll see."

Q: How do you go about trying to get in all of your work with the heat out there?

Coach McDaniels: "Follow the medical advice. A part of that meeting we just had was dedicated to that, the climate and understanding the heat. So, we have an incredible indoor facility, and if we ever enter into that danger zone -- they have a very scientific way to measure it that I'm not really qualified to speak intelligently about -- but I understand when they tell me that we've entered into a zone where it's dangerous to be out there with helmets, pads, etc., then we'll do the right thing. We'll use the cool boxes on a regular basis during the course of practice anyway just to prevent the body temperature from going into a range where we don't want it to go into, but our medical team has done a great job of trying to handle that, manage that. They did it last year in training camp, and we'll use the indoor facility as we need to protect our players."

Q: Any timeline for Tyree Wilson?

Coach McDaniels: "No timeline, but he's headed in the right direction, no question about it, excited about that. And this is, again, just a process that we expected based on what was happening at the time we drafted him. So, we knew that there was going to be a rehabilitation process and then there's going to be a re-acclamation phase here. He's doing a great job of everything that he's doing right now. And once he's ready to roll, then we'll re-enter him into practice the right way and then get him ready to go for the regular season."

Q: How about Byron Young?

Coach McDaniels: "Just again, no timeline, but he's doing everything the right way, and like I said, hopefully he'll be out there soon enough." 

Q: You extended Hunter Renfrow last year. For a lot of reasons his season just never got on track because of injuries and whatnot. How excited are you about just getting him back and getting him acclimated to your system into this offense? 

Coach McDaniels: "Yeah, we just spoke this morning -- super excited. Any time you have a player that battles through a bunch of the injuries that Hunter [Renfrow] did last year and the stuff that prevented him from being on the field, you have some extra motivation as a coach to see it through and make sure that he comes back and has the type of season he's capable of having, which we all know what that is, we've seen that before. I know he's excited. He's ready to go. He's healthy, had a good offseason. So again, we can't predict anything, but I know what Hunter is capable of. I know what he means to our team. I know how excited he is to perform well and try to help us win, and that's what we're geared toward, too."

Q: You guys obviously had a break from OTAs to training camp. From personal experience, what is the best advice you give your guys -- your players and your staff -- of being mentally and physically ready to go into training camp?

Coach McDaniels: "I think physically to try to maintain the shape and conditioning that you've earned the right to be in when OTAs and the spring ends. You don't want to just sit on the couch and do nothing for a month and a half and lose that. They've worked hard to get into that point of the year, and we do everything to be in condition to be able to go out there and play when training camp comes. So that's the first thing, but also to get your do get your mind away from football. Enjoy your family and relax, take some stress off your day-to-day routine and do things that you have the opportunity and the right to do at this time of the year. And then when you're ready to come back, hopefully they report and they're refreshed and excited and rejuvenated and recharged. I think our staff did that a couple of days ago, and you could see that, and I think the players reported much the same."

Q: What do you want to see most from the offensive line unit coming into camp? And I know there's position battles, but what do you want to see in terms of improvement and where do you want to see that unit as a whole?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, I mean, the first thing we want our offensive line to do is they want to compete out there. They're not going to always, as you saw last training camp, they won't always be beside the same guy the entire camp. That's by choice that we want to make sure that we work through the different combinations that we might have to play with. Communication is really important for those guys. We've talked a lot about the continuity that we have from last year to this year. We’ve added a couple of new faces up there, but generally speaking, most of those guys are back and that gives them an opportunity to work as a unit the way we want him to work. They’re obviously always a determinant of how tough your football team is, your ability to run the football, your ability to protect the passer. Offensive lines don't get enough credit for all the things that happen offensively, and so we have a lot of confidence in our group. Excited to see them go out and compete with one another. Excited for the joint practices that we'll have coming up eventually here. We always learn a lot about our football team then and that's a good opportunity for you to find out kind of some of the areas where you're strong and where you might need some help or some work in those practices as well. So, I'm excited for that group. They had a great spring. I think they're ready to go. They're healthy and they look good. So, we’ll see how it goes.

Q: Dave Ziegler has delivered you a roster with a lot of depth and a lot of competition. Does that just make camp better when everybody's competing?

Coach McDaniels: “I think it makes us all better. I mean, when you know that there's guys in your room that are trying to earn playing time that would otherwise go to you, it just makes you work that much harder. It makes you study and prepare hard. And so, I think we've always tried to do that as much as we could and at every position. Some positions, as you guys know, changed a little bit more than others this spring and this offseason, but I think we've tried to build competition at every spot we could. And then now is the time for them to go out there and get opportunities and determine what their role is going to be. We’ve always told them that their role will be what they make it, and that means if they get opportunities and what they do with it is important.

Q: Can you kind of measure where your team is now and where you want them to be compared to where they were last year entering training camp?

Coach McDaniels: “Again, measuring them at this point is hard because all we've done is go through eight practices in shorts. But I think that you can learn some things as you go through the offseason about our ability to communicate, our ability to make adjustments. I think some of the guys that were here before, I would say probably they feel a little bit more comfortable just in terms of what word do I use here? How do I communicate with my teammate? Their knowledge of what's going on a play-by-play basis, their understanding of situational football. I'd hope that that has improved just with another year and more experience. And then the new guys that have come in have had a great attitude and approach. So, each year is different. I mean, honest to God, this is year 23 for me and there's no two years that have been anywhere near the same. And you're going to hit some adversity here. Some years you're healthier than others. Some years you’re not. Some years you start a little better, some years you finish better. I think our team in general is fairly healthy, excited, ready to go and has a great attitude and approach. They had a great mindset in the spring. They really work hard and so I know they're eager for this to get started.”

Q: You were talking about competition. Does that go the same for defensive goals like sacks, pressures, turnovers. Obviously not asking for a number, but is there a certain kind of target that you guys have to get these guys fired up and have something to aim for?

Coach McDaniels: “Yeah, I mean we talked very early in the offseason about either touching the ball or getting the quarterback, and I think any good defense does those things. So, our goal each week will obviously be to try to create disruption, turnovers, negative plays. Some weeks are harder to do that than others based on who you're playing and the way they play. But I know our defense, our staff has really tried to identify some ways for us to improve. Dave [Ziegler] and his personnel staff have done a good job of giving us some different types of players with different skill sets here to try to go out there and utilize those. So, every team goes through changes, we've had changes on defense, and obviously we're going to try to address some of the things that maybe we weren't as good at last year, Different year, different team, different training camp, so, I think we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us in order to become whatever it is ultimately we're going to become. But those certainly are things that you want to be good at on defense.”

Q: Along those lines, obviously 17 games are going to ultimately define what this group is all about. But as you sit here today, do you feel like you have a pretty good handle on what this team might end up being?

Coach McDaniels: “Are you asking for a prediction, Vinny? I mean like I said, I think the best place we can be right now is that we're eager and we're excited. I think we have a genuine good feeling about one another in the locker room. I think that there's a lot of competition. I think they're ready to go out there and perform, compete with one another, eventually compete with somebody else here in a couple of weeks. And ultimately, you get to the point, whatever the highest point we can get to here in six weeks before we play our first game. That'll be one point and then obviously the season, you don't start there and then stay there. We’ve got to try to improve as we go through the year. So, we're going to look at it as a process. We're going to try to hold everyone accountable to a high standard and try to do things a little better each week, each day and keep building and hopefully, as we've talked about in the past, play our best football at the end.”

The Silver and Black open the preseason by hosting the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, Aug. 13, at 4 p.m. EDT/1 p.m. PDT.

Please tell us your thoughts when you like our Facebook Page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.