Raiders Special Teams Coach Tom McMahon From Training Camp

The 2023 NFL Training Camp for the Las Vegas Raiders is progressing, and today Special Teams Coach Tom McMahon spoke, and we have his entire comments for you.

HENDERSON, Nev.--The Las Vegas Raiders have opened their 2023 NFL Training Camp, and Special Teams Coach Tom McMahon took to the podium to address the media.

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

 Special Teams Coordinator Tom McMahon 

Q: Obviously it was the first day in pads. It's always physical but you guys kind of took it to another level today with the tackling and everything. As a coach what's the response from you when you see that level of physicality? 

Coach McMahon: "The biggest thing is we have to be great strikers in both phases, in kick cover and kickoff return. You have to control and sustain and maintain leverage throughout the block. You've got to control and maintain leverage throughout the coverage part of it. And then the other thing you do is you've got to shed. So, it was great to see those facets. We did not take anyone to the ground in any of our special teams drills, so we didn't get to see them tackle, but we were live to the ball. It was nice to see that and see the fits, and it was really good for the young players to see that speed coming down at them. We've had controlled speed in all of our drills to protect, which it should be, and now they can see true speed." 

Q: As a football coach, but one that's intense like you, is it just better when pads are on because it's more like real football? 

Coach McMahon: "Yes. The bottom line, yes for me. Yes sir." 

Q: As it gets closer, we've had more time to process the new kickoff rules. How different do you think it's going to look this year? 

Coach McMahon: "I'd be guessing if I said. I think that situationally guys are going to fair catch the football when they need to. We've got great head coaches in this league. I feel like we have the best, but we have great head coaches in this league. They're going to make decisions; when you've got leads in the second half, so on and so forth, early on you're trying to pin them. I don't know that it's going to change really the philosophy, but there's going to be some different kicks. That's the biggest thing that we're working on is there are going to be some weird kicks to try to force returns, and everyone knows they call them squibs. But you might get line drives, you might get all kinds of different kicks that get some spin on them and things like that." 

Q: Back when we talked to you earlier, you didn't know yet what your plan was, and I'm not asking you to give it to us because you won't. But do you guys know what you're going to do? Have you formulated your plan? 

Coach McMahon: "No. And I'm gonna be upfront with you. We need to do that in the preseason, do you understand what I'm saying? We need to see what this is going to do, and we need to try some of those things that we might do within that plan and see good ball, bad ball." 

Q: As a coach, do you kind of like that challenge of: 'Alright they took something away or tried to take something away,' but there are ways to for you to adjust now to that? 

Coach McMahon: "Yes sir. You can go find schemes within that rule. Any time somebody writes a rule, there are schemes in there that you can find and you can take advantage of." 

Q: Which probably led to this decision, right? 

Coach McMahon: "I Agree." 

 Q: How different is the coverage and the responsibilities of coverage guys between a squib kick and a kick that goes up? 

Coach McMahon: "The coverage rules aren't going to be much different. It changes a lot for the kickoff return unit naturally because there's no hang time. So the drops are going to be shorter because we're going to get the ball in our hands. For example, if you're the return team, you're going to get it in 3.2 seconds versus sometimes 4.2 seconds. So there's disadvantages also, because you don't have enough time to cover when they start to squib this ball. So guys are going to get tricky. There are some good coaches in this league. They're going to put all over the field and they'll put spin on it and things like that, and we've got to be ready for everything." 

Q: Throughout the practices, you've had a lot of guys kind of fielding punts and fielding the kick returns. A guy who I saw catch a couple today was Tre Tucker. Can you just talk about the progression that he's made coming into rookie camp to now? 

Coach McMahon: "Tre [Tucker] has done a great job. People have to realize that Tre was a kick returner in Cincinnati, so Tre naturally can catch kickoffs. And what he's done for us, he's done a great job of, and he's got a ways to go. We all have ways to go, but he's really trying to learn how to catch punts. And an NFL punt is 1,000 percent different than a college punt. There are not a lot of guys in college who can hit 5.0, 4.5s and it's a rollout play. As all of you know in this room, the college punt is Mars and we're on Earth. They can roll out and everybody can release when the ball is snapped, so you get the rugby punts. You don't get any of those, you have to pocket punt pretty much in this league. So (Tucker) has to get under balls and catch them. What I like is that he has taken Danny Amendola's coaching, he's taken DC [DeAndre Carter], Hunter [Renfrow], all those guys, and he's trying to emulate them because they do it right. He's got the best coach in the league that's done this for many years." 

Q: I saw Nate Hobbs take some punts and I think maybe some kickoffs, but I don't remember him doing that last year. I'm just wondering, is that something that he came to you guys with or vice versa to maybe add to his repertoire? 

Coach McMahon: "I'll be honest, I don't know if I've seen Nate back there. I don't know who's been back there. Some guys are just going back, and I don't know who they are." 

Q: How would you describe the growing relationship between the new long snapper, Jacob Bobenmoyer, and the two established players in AJ Cole and Daniel Carlson? 

Coach McMahon: "It's solid. It's a professional relationship. We've got great specialists here, and the bottom line is they understand that the greatest teammates of all time do one thing -- they produce." 

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.

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