Podcast Update No. 1 From the NFL Combine

Our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast offers our first in-depth update from the NFL Combine here in Indianapolis.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.--The Las Vegas Raiders are invading the NFL Combine in Indianapolis this week on a hunt to find the next great Silver and Black players.

New General Manager Tom Telesco, Coach Antonio Pierce and the Silver and Black staff will conduct countless interviews, review hundreds of players, and leave no stone unturned in the vetting process to find talent and those who are the mindset of the new Silver and Black regime.

Our latest Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast episode examines Pierce's hiring and what it says about him. We answer some of your emails, one specifically about what we are hearing about quarterback Bo Nix, the salary cap, and Pierce's critics, and just shut them up if you can.

You can watch the entire podcast above.

Tom Telescon, Antonio Pierce, and the Las Vegas Raiders are on the hunt for some new players here at the NFL Combine / © Kirby Lee | 2024 Feb 27

We have reported extensively about General Manager Tom Telesco and his evaluation of the current Raiders, and he addressed that at the NFL Combine.

 "I think the one thing that jumped off kind of doing a deeper dive is how tough a football team it was, and I would say that on offense, defense and the kicking game," Telesco said. "But tough, resilient and really committed to the process. Just watching the whole situation, how the season played out from how it started and then your head coach is no longer there, and then how you finished it with a new head coach. But it"s a really tough-minded, mentally tough football team. So, that's what kind of came out the most. And then you're talking about both sides of ball, offensively we have a lot of work to do, I think that's pretty easy to see. I kind of liked even watching how Adian O'Connell kind of handled the situation. You're talking about a rookie first of all, coming and playing -- by the time he starts playing a lot, he no longer has his head coach, it was also the offensive coordinator, so it's a new offensive staff essentially that he's kind of working with. 

"And then we had some injuries late in the year with the left tackle and even Josh Jacobs being out, seeing how well he played late in the year. But we've got a lot of work to do on offense there. And then defensively, I think a lot of it is probably from the continuity of playing the whole year, how well they played. And what a great job Patrick Graham did with the group on a day-to-day basis, but then how they played on the field on Sundays and the mentality that they played with, which is a lot of what you see on defense. And then on special teams, we have some pretty elite guys as far as long snapper, punter and kicker, which believe me is great to have. But we've got work to do on all three, but I liked what I saw, the toughness of the football team that's there." 

The NFL Draft will be held in Detroit, Mich., on April 25-27, 2024. The Las Vegas Raiders currently hold the No. 13 overall pick.

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