ASSISTANT HEAD COACH/SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR DAVE TOUB
Q: Is there a possibility that Kadarius Toney will remain as the returner?
TOUB: “We haven’t even got a report yet from on trainers, you know, it’s so early, so we have to see how Mecole (Hardman) is, we have to see how Kadarius kept– he runs so hard and tough, that he kept getting banged up in there, too. His hand got hurt, and his foot, it’s all different things, so we just have to wait and see. We’ll get the doctor’s report, we’ll move forward from there. He gave us a bit of a spark. He runs hard. He’s a good catcher. He’s fearless back there, so we’ll see. We’ll just have to evaluate as we go forward.”
Q: How did the weather affect the field and the game?
TOUB: “The weather effected the distance on our field goals a little bit. Obviously, when we didn’t try that longer field goal down there at the end of the game, I mean it was out of our range where we felt comfortable with and then the way our defense was playing, we felt field position was probably the best way to go there. We just didn’t get the ball downed like we needed to in that situation. We had the touchback, so that’s part of the execution that we have to do a better job with but as far the field goes, the field held up pretty darn good I thought. I didn’t see a lot of slipping out there. It’s a good field. It drains real well, really that wasn’t a factor I didn’t think. It was mainly the rainy, windy conditions more so than the field.”
Q: Tommy Townsend had some punts that he didn’t seem happy with. Was it just a bad day or is there any concern there?
TOUB: “I didn’t see anything potentially more. I just thought that he got a little frustrated you’re right – we had six punts, three of them weren’t up to par for him. He’ll play better next week.”
Q: What do you see with the Raiders special teams unit and with Allegiant Stadium?
TOUB: “I love that stadium. It’s awesome, the crowd; it’s a cool place to play. Besides that, the Raiders are a good football team. Right now, we do statistics all year long, they’re ranked number one on special teams. They definitely have our attention. I started looking at them a little bit last week, not really in depth, really dove into it this morning early. They are a really good unit. They fly around, they have a great returner in (WR DeAndre) Carter, he’s excellent. Their punter (AJ Cole) is having a year that is just crazy good, Cole, he’s doing really well. It’s going to be a tough one on a short week.”
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR STEVE SPAGNUOLO
Q: Has Trent McDuffie outperformed even what you expected of him when you drafted him?
SPAGNUOLO: “We had high expectations when we took him obviously. I think we moved up to get him. I think we were all convicted on what we were getting. What I didn’t realize was at (the University of) Washington he did not play a lot inside as a nickel. I did talk with Jimmy Lake prior to the draft, that was his college coach, and I remember him saying to me, ‘Hey, Steve, I know Trent (McDuffie) didn’t play a lot inside.’ - because they had another guy that was drafted who played some nickel, I forget his name – but Coach Jimmy Lake said to me, ‘He can certainly play inside.’ So we always kind of had that in the back of our mind. A year ago, LJ (L'Jarius Sneed) was in there more often but because we’ve matched LJ quite a bit with a number one wide receiver, we needed someone else to go inside, and Trent has been that guy. He has excelled in there – you talk about a guy who plays inside, he plays outside, we blitz him, we ask him to do a lot of things. The first part of that is the mental. I’m real impressed with that part of that and what he’s done. I was happy to see him get a couple of sacks last night, made a good play on the ball that they tried to throw out there. He’s just got some really good instincts, and that bodes well when you’re playing inside like that.”
Q: Will L'Jarius Sneed get the assignment to follow Raiders WR Davante Adams like he has with other top receivers? What allows him to have success against the elite receivers?
SPAGNUOLO: “We’ll find ways to get him on (Raiders WR) Davante (Adams). It won’t be all the time be-cause sometimes when LJ (L'Jarius Sneed) and Trent (McDuffie) are in there we’re okay with them going right and left, so it’s not every down. I think one of the biggest things is LJ is a physical guy. People keep talking to me about the penalties he’s getting, I’m not always concerned about it. He’s always working at it, he got one yesterday that he’d like to have back, sometimes that happens when you’re an aggressive press team. I would never give that up for what he’s been giving us in terms of trying to be aggressive on a top receiver. I think that’s always good for us. He does a nice job with it. I mean Trent has been on those guys before, and so has Josh (Williams) and Jaylen (Watson). We’ll keep hoping we have success with it.”
Q: How different are the Raiders with the coaching change to Antonio Pierce?
SPAGNUOLO: “It’s probably well documented that (Raiders Interim Head Coach) Antonio Pierce is a favorite of mine. I was fortunate enough to coach him in New York. I think he’s doing a terrific job. I was just talking with someone here recently, the energy in that team seems to have changed. I know what he’s all about. I know how he coaches. I kind of know how he thinks. He’ll energize teams. He’s done it offensively and defensively. I think they’re playing at a high level. They played Miami two days ago, they are a real good football team, and they gave them all they could handle. I think he’s made a tremendous impact. When I spoke with him last week, I told him I was always pulling for him except for two games, and this will be one of them, so he doesn’t have me on his side for this game.”
Q: When did you see something in Antonio Pierce that made you think he was someone who could be a head coach?
SPAGNUOLO: “I’ll tell you what, it goes all the way back to when I coached him. In my opinion he was another coach on the field, he was our mike linebacker, a lot like Nick (Bolton). He sees the game big-picture, sees little things that for other guys go unnoticed. They study the game differently – he always did, he was a grinder of tape. Then when he got done playing and we spoke, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do it and I said, ‘Well go coach high school football for a while.’ He did that, you guys know he was a head coach at Long Beach (Poly High School) for four years and did a terrific job. I had him for one year in New York in 2017. He was kind of behind the scenes, but he was always great at grinding tape. He has a unique way – he can communicate with anyone, he could be in a black-tie affair and do great or he could be on the street somewhere. He just has a great way – great in relationships with people in all places and he can connect people together. He’s doing that now out there with the Raiders.”
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR MATT NAGY
Q: On the development of wide receivers.
NAGY: “As we go through this process and we go through this year of building the offense like we’ve been talking about all year – what guys do well, what their strengths and weaknesses are. We want to be able to, number one, score points, eliminate turnovers, eliminate penalties as an offense in general. Then when the plays are there to be made, make the plays, that’s everybody. It’s the same thing with us as coaches, when we have a chance to make good calls and in practice put these guys in good positions, we want to be able to do that. We’ve been dealing with a good amount of guys here that are all great players that want to do well and succeed, and when you have a game like we did last night where there might be a little bit of a magnifying glass – whether it’s some of the drops, whether it's a specific play it can be a little bit bigger than others it can definitely be a big deal, we understand that and the players understand that. In the end, we have a lot of trust in these guys, and we believe in them. I think that’s very very important. You hear that, and you see that from Pat (Mahomes). It’s something (where) we continue to stick together and keep working through – we know it’s not going to be easy. Honestly, the biggest thing is it goes back to, let’s not beat ourselves with turnovers and penalties in the end – and drops, that can be a part of it as well. There is a lot that goes into all of that. That’s a long way to say that, yes, we need to be better. When you lose a game, it gets magnified, when you win a game sometimes it gets deodorized, and I think we need to understand that we have good things ahead of us, let’s just stay positive and work through these and we’ll be alright.”
Q: At the beginning of the season, you said Rashee Rice was more of a package player, is he still in that role?
NAGY: “Not necessarily, I think he’s done a good job of being able to show us that he can do more. (He’s) taking the time throughout the week to understand certain route concepts. We know what he can do with the football in his hands. We saw that yesterday a few times, he’s a physical runner, he has strong hands. Now I think you’re noticing that some of his snaps are going up slightly as far as his percentages of snaps. We want to continue to do that, that’s part of development and the trust factor – which is real. The more we can get at that, the better we will be because he’s a very good football player. You’re right he is growing, but it will be in increments, and we like the path he is on right now.”
Q: Is wide receiver playing time game plan specific or are you still evaluating who the top receivers are on the team?
NAGY: “It’s probably a mixture of both. It’s one where maybe one game based on what we think personnel wise we want to do or not do – and that can be whether we’re in 13-personnel, 12-personel, 11-personel whether we decide we want to throw the ball or run the ball, all of that goes into it. We take a strong look at that every week, where we’re putting guys – it’s certainly a little easier to do when you have less guys because it’s those three of four guys. We have a few more guys that are a part of our wide receiver room so there’s a little balance and a juggling act on top of if someone gets hurt or if someone just ran a deep route and now it’s third-and-10 and they were in for this next route, but they ran two deep routes in a row (so) the next guy is up. It’s impossible to be perfect with all of that but I think you’ll probably see throughout the season there’s probably a little bit of a fluctuation with all the guys.”
Q: When you say you’re working on stuff with dropped passes, how do you work on it?
NAGY: “It’s more physical than anything. There might be times where we’re in the building just getting through with a meeting and you look outside and see guys on the jugs machines getting extra work in, that’s probably the biggest one. Then it would be in between (practice) periods they go over with the quarterbacks and they run specific routes that are in the game plan. Generally speaking, we have several routes that a lot of guys have been doing since OTAs, but then we may have a couple routes that are a little more specific to that defense, so we try to work on the timing of those routes with the time permitted between periods and they stay afterwards as well. I would say definitely it’s more physical. The mental side of it is understanding and just looking at the scheme of where you’re going to be at. Physically getting those throws from Patrick (Mahomes) is where they get that extra work in between periods and then those guys on their own you’ll see they’re outside more so on the jugs when Patrick is not out there.”