Coach Gruden, Derek Carr, K.J. Wright and Daniel Carlson Presser - 9.22.21 | Las Vegas Raiders | NFL

my he was full today so he's ready to go he's ready to go dolphins defense they're pretty aggressive they play a lot of man coverage and he gets a lot not getting too many details working off the challenges that perfect because a lot of challenges i mean they're really a good defense they have great corners that can handle the the one-on-one burden the pressure of covering a guy with no help for a long time howard and jones are two of the best in the league and coleman is a guy that's got a lot of experience in a slot and roe is a former coroner that can cover uh as well so they have the people that can cover and they have a coach that is very well versed in how to get home and create problems with protections so it's a it's a real challenge for us speaking about those corners at howard jones uh how much confident are you in rugs and edwards from last year's matchup into this year's matchup with the development well i'm a confident guy so i mean i don't lack confidence we've got to let ruggs and edwards take care of that on the on the grass but i'm i'm a confident person we haven't seen the injury report yet but alex leatherwood and richie incognito well we'll have an official document signed by the proper people so you have the exact status of everybody so everybody's pleased but leatherwood was full today carr was full today incognito did not practice nor did josh jacobs teamer did not practice and who else didn't practice alan levitt did not practice and we will get that document certified in your hands soon when you're calling your plays this season and it comes to calling for bigger plays are you you haven't you're playing chess obviously against the defense but are you having fun calling the big plays the big numbers those big pathways is it somewhat get fun for you and seeing them execute the big plays i just like execution you know i really do we uh we were good on third down last year we were good in the two-minute drill we did some good things scoring the football we still have plenty of areas to clean up but yeah i mean when you call a play that works whether it's a short yardage conversion or a goal line conversion or a long big play you you know you have to get excited about something there's enough negativity out there to kill any rat right now so you know i do get excited when we make a good play especially a big play an explosive game for the end of sunday's game it seems like you guys started getting a little on track on the run game uh that's something that would maybe carry over i mean you know if you do the history on pittsburgh and baltimore you know call me and tell me the teams that have run the ball up and down their throat you know these are good run defenses they're also defenses that are committed to stopping a run with multiple people on the line of scrimmage and chaotic blitzes so you have to be honest with yourself and say you know what it's going to be hard to run the ball today i don't care if we have walter payton or jim brown in her prime you know it's hard to run the ball against certain defenses and with that being said you have to find other ways to move the ball and right now we've improved a little bit in the passing game we're not there yet here either but uh against miami it's going to be a very very difficult day throwing and running and uh the tape proves that a lot of heavy personnel which is something that you don't see too much in the league anymore um what about your roster allows you guys to be so successful when you go to those levels i don't know what we said when we first got here that was the goal was to try to put together a team that could adapt on a weekly basis you hear certain teams say we have specific game plans for specific teams that's what we would like to do too you'd like to attack a base defense you'd like to attack a nickel defense and to do that you have to have tight ends you have to have a full back that's just our philosophy here not everybody agrees but we've improved the roster and therefore we've improved our capabilities to attack defenses different ways the nature of the sleep can be repeat the two teams that you did and sit here today where you are is there a 2-0 glow no no we you know we had a 2-0 year last year you know it's not where you line up it's where you wind up you know this is re it's it's past now we got a we got a long way to go we still have 15 games somebody told me we're playing 17 regular season games and we've been by play 18 or 19 next year who knows but um not to be uh sarcastic but no we uh we want to win this game this week and try to stay in the hunt john as a coach whose team is successful at this point in the year how difficult is it to know yet there is a lot of negativity let's be positive but also tap the brakes is that one of the hardest parts about being a head coach no i try not to worry about the negative things you know i'm more of a don't pay attention to to that kind of stuff there's a lot of people paid a lot of money to get twitter hits and uh youtube videos and encourage you to uh feed your mind with negativity and i don't i don't really care about that stuff i'm at a point now where i like to feed the birds i like to go fishing i like to have a good time and i'm gonna have a good time coaching i like these players and i don't give a damn about negativity there's enough of it in politics in our social world right now and we're here to try to create a positive las vegas vibe and have some fun here and that's what we're doing last night in the real sports uh segment with andrew kramer there's a scene where you're alone in the film in an office and you're watching film and it's dark you're sort of just secluded but you're on your own little world is that your zen is that where you pretty much yep i mean i love that part of the the life of football you know the studying and the idea that maybe you can help a guy get better and maybe help be a part of winning a football game at this level i just love the competition i love the camaraderie we love the journey of uh competing and you know you gotta you gotta do the preparation i always talk about preparation and presentation if you don't do the preparation you can't present anything on game day so i enjoy that part of it the dolphins have one of the longest streaks ever in the nfl forcing fumbles is there something that you've seen that they do in particular and how much yeah they beat the patriots with a key fumble eight in the game you know in new england it was a great win they are they are very physical guys they're linebackers roberts um baker they impressed me they're lying back in core x howard has 10 picks last year they're ball hawking their pressure defense and when the free hitter gets there he knows how to get the ball out so we've emphasized it and we'll continue to do that uh throughout the week coach joe has been ruled out for sunday's game what have you seen on film that copy preset could bring to the miami offense that maybe couldn't well we're familiarizing ourselves with the dolphins system they have a new coordinator chan galey's no longer there so coach godsey does things a little bit differently first thing is familiarize yourself with their scheme and then their personnel they've got great receivers and a very very formidable tight end and brissett can extend plays so we got a lot of respect for him we've played against him in the past he's a dual threat capable of doing a lot of different things given the injuries on the offensive line and the guys the moving parts on there tom cable getting uh extra time put this thing together i mean what's your assessment of what he's been able to do and what those guys have been able to do on the line well we're hanging in there you know tom's done an excellent job so is cam clemons our assistant line coach you know when tom's up here working trying to put the game plan together cam is introducing himself to you know jackson barton or hey here's we got a luminor here here's a new guy we got simmons is coming in here so it's a combination of a lot of people throughout the day helping these young guys learn our system because it is a lot and both tom and cam deserve a lot of credit so does tim berbinick you know he's our new running back coach we lost jalen richard we lost our feature back but other teams are dealing with adversity we have to adapt the best we can that's good all right guys have a good one uh the first two games but specifically you can really see the imprint of bradley with his disciples you and barryman and quentin and casey just talk about you your guys in particular and how important that is to sort of just let it be contagious yeah yeah you definitely have um gus's disciples at all three levels the backhand linebackers and the d-line and it's just uh it's really cool to see like how successful everywhere gus has gone he's been successful and for him to come here and have the same successful start and end this two and no start is really cool to see i love the way this defense plays play fast this defense play is very confident and you see like there's there's not too many mistakes out there because what we do is we prepare like no other and we're just able to play fast and so to see gus and uh with his play calling with these guys it's really fun to see you've played behind some pretty good defensive lines in your career not asking you to compare or anything like that but this group seems to be getting after it pretty good this defensive line is very good and um when i first got here when i first got here the first first a few practices i saw how yannick and crosby were just how that chemistry is with those two how they talk every play how they come off the edge and have their stunts it's really good to see and i was with quinn jefferson in seattle and to see him go from a young rookie to where he is now this dude in my eyes is one of the best three techniques in the nfl he doesn't get the credit that you know most guys get but he is always on it every day and our rotation is really good you know no matter who comes out there whether it's a cleat coming off the edge you know we look we look really good at that front defensive line kj when you first got hired i asked you when brought in i asked you about them wanting you to be a leader in the first two games every time i look at you in the sidelines you're talking with a young player what does it mean that they'll not that they're listening to you they should listen because i got a lot of got a lot of wisdom got a lot of um accolades got some super bowls under my belt under my belt and so you know year 11 i have a lot of insight and knowledge i've seen a lot of football and so it's only smart too listen i did that when i was a rookie listen to the brandon me bangs of the world and the red bronze and so when you have a guy on this team you know you got to just just be a sponge just get all kind of information from them how they take care of their body how they prepare for film and so it's only smart that they do that you haven't had the um a lot because you have so much good pressure does that make it harder now for future opponents when you bring packages that maybe haven't been on film and two does it also say something about you said i think when you're here last guess the scheme is pretty simple you just do what you're supposed to do yeah as you've seen uh yeah not too many blisses and when we have called them you saw that they've come home and so um it's really good when you just rush with four and have the rest of the seven dropping back but when we do dial it up you know teams aren't expecting it and gus you know for some reason he has just perfect timing when he does cause his blitzes and so um yeah just just what we can do up front the versatility that we have on this team we're bringing safeties off the edge when we need to bring some linebackers it really helps us out you're the second guy to uh bring up kind of unprompted about how clinton's uh a little underappreciated and people realize what is it about him that makes you guys uh see that and so many people say yeah because i i watch football all the time i watch i watch ball and i see some guys that do certain things that other guys do but they get the credit and so it's like you know where is this where is this going you know why isn't quinn jefferson name being put up there with the best and i believe that he's finally starting to come alive you know we have some prime time games so the rest of the world can start to see them and you know quinn's not a meme me guy but you know you still want that respect as as a player you want the respect from your teammates and from the fans and from the coaches around the league and so he's just getting started i believe this is what fifth year and so um yeah just got to keep it going i love playing with them i'm not sure how much this is on your radar uh when you're doing your thing but nate hobbs has a rookie yeah he's doing really i mean you don't he doesn't feel like a rookie yeah it's funny i was talking i was talking to my mom yesterday she was like i like i like that uh 30 was 39-37 i like yeah he's really good and uh he's you know when you have a nickel that can tackle that can cover he looks like a sappy vet out there and he looks really good but with him he's that machine stay consistent you know don't let this early success get to your head just stay consistent stay consistent and just keep doing your thing because the nickel position is one of the toughest positions you know out there you're out there in the slot you gotta be in the run fit and be out there on the island by yourself so he's off to a really good start and um yeah me and him talk all the time if we can piggyback on your uh one of those questions about talking to the youngsters can you think about since you've gotten here through the first two games and isolated into one guy maybe and now and then you see them execute then you put me on the spot right there oh you put me on the spot i ain't got one for you but just just talking to you guys about preparation how do you prepare and uh when i'm out there on the field i'm calling plays hey watch for this watch for that screen on the back side and some things happen like that you know that stuff you know definitely gives me joy but um i can't i can't pinpoint an exact thing give me a little more time got you guys did a better job and against the ryan and we too it in a week one yeah what improvements did you see in that area specifically um one week one we had two running backs back there you know lamar he's a guy that has tons of speed and um you know they also have their other running backs but with this we knew that 22 would be the main guy and it wasn't all those you know pullers and quarterback keeping the ball it was simply stretch play counter plays and so i believe that's going to be the same thing we come in this week with the moz gaskins and salvon two two really good running backs so we can really pinpoint on if it is a run where the ball is going k.j sam gordon las vegas review general nice to meet you um you mentioned at the top that cuss has had success everywhere he's gone what do you think drives his success as a coach and he's driven throughout the course of his career man gus the way he prepares that's not anything that we will miss that this offense is going to do and we know what they're going to do before it happens he puts it on the board he makes it loud and clear hey let's focus on this this is how this team won't attack us and so it's crystal clear what he does and he gives us a lot of information and it's it's up to us to process it but um come sunday we prepare all throughout the week and we're always ready to roll miles gaston going against him i believe he's training that same city as you and yeah yeah we we both trained at um ford sports performance in bellevue washington and salvon trains there as well the other running back and just to work out with those guys and see how much effort that they put into their training it's only right that those guys have great seasons and anybody that comes to that facility usually has a great season bobby trains there as well and so to compete against those guys will be fun i played against him last year and it was good seeing him and so just another match up won't be no brother-in-law and out there he's gonna try to shake me i'm gonna try to get him to the ground so it's gonna be all love it seems like it should be like a really chaotic last month for you like signing the emotions of leaving yeah starting the season right away like all these things are starting 2-0 yeah it seems like it should be crazy but you seem very chill on the field off the field everything else like has it been crazy don't let the chillness fool you it's been crazy um for me to sign and to leave my family the next day that was a lot that's a lot to process as a man that has three kids and a wife it's like all right family i gotta go do my thing and leave my family for six months that's that is a lot to find a new house ship my car out here make new friends learn the playbook play an nfl game within a week that's a lot so um thank thank god for his uh peace that he's been giving me been praying every night just trying to just get adjusted and so i am a chill guy but i am human as well and so i'm finally starting my routine get my massage therapist get my acupuncture people and um so it's starting i'm starting to find my routine okay kj i gotta ask you um so as twitterers will do they'll grab a clip of something and tweet out so of course the naji stiff arm stopped after he's different jonathan what got left out was the ending of that play in which he sort of came out with a little bit of a settle down youngsta hit on him to sort of end that play yeah when you see that did you put a little extra on it it seemed like he was coming off a spin move but i gotta ask you about it because so many highlights they never put the end of it on you know you know how that works and for me personally i delete twitter during the season i delete all that message see all you know i don't try to see all that stuff and so yeah you saw him stiff arm abram and then you know he tried to do something with me and you know i just just just made her tackle and so yeah they're gonna have their stuff they'll that highlight hopefully should go away here soon but um yeah you know just just make the tackle and abrams with that i'm sure that won't happen again all right great all right appreciate it this year i'm sure a lot of it has to do with play calls and who's out there on the field with you but it's also a mentality you have to have to do that how's your first season just from that specific season yeah you know like like always man i um i just try and execute at the best possible way that i can that coach gruden you know designs the play you know wants the worth of where he wants the ball to go and certain looks and all those things and and especially in that first ravens games i was taking probably one too many you know shots instead of finding completion early on um but but it has a lot to do with what's going on in front of you has a lot to do with what's what's going on outside um and what's going on on the other side of the ball too you know sometimes you gotta chew the clock up you gotta get completions and you know stay on the field and things like that uh but but we've been been fortunate that our defense has been playing at such a level man we've been able to take some shots to take some chances and um it's been nice that some of those have worked out for us i know with an injury like you suffered on on sunday um sometimes it's not until the next morning that you figure out okay how bad was this really um hey how did it look that when you woke up monday morning but also is there or is there something to do during the night to make sure that it's going to be in as good a possible shape absolutely you know i've learned some things um in my time uh playing in my eight years that i'll share with some young guys someday you know but not but not yet you know um it'll still a competitive advantage uh but uh i do i just there's a process of things that i go through for my body now when i have an injury there's a whole nother set of things that i do it's kind of like a 24-hour kind of thing you know where it it doesn't stop you know my day while i'm awake is super busy whether it's an active recovery or it's something i'm pushing and something i'm going after and then even when i'm asleep i'm got something going on you know and usually it's hard to sleep that way but coming from the east coast i was able to sleep pretty good um a lot of his that was injuries and being able to be out there and playing and without giving away any secrets but is that part of it does it become a mentality it you definitely it's definitely a mentality any injury that you have the first thing your coaches ever ask you're gonna be ready on sunday and your first response to that is where you set your mind you know coach i'm gonna try my best or i don't know we'll see or it's yes i'm playing you know it's two different uh ways of setting your mind to you know know that no matter what it is you know whether it's a growing a back you know a thumb whatever i've had you know ankle all those things a knee um the first response is absolutely i'm playing and now every decision that i make in rehab and on the field and all that is to make sure that i'm ready to play on sunday whereas if you're up in the air i don't know we'll see uh you know you've already lost the battle in your mind you know so anything that happens now it's a oh it's a setback oh no i'm just getting getting it flushed out you know it's different different mindset so absolutely my my whole thing coach gruden asked me day one when he the very first thing he said to me he said you're not allowed to get hurt you know um he said you get hurt i'm going back to florida so that's like well i'll do my best so i've tried my best to always be available for our team john uh mentioned on monday derek about the unity of this team and then he was i asked him about your comment after the game looking up at all your teammates praying for you yeah there's a lot of guys on this team who share a commonality of faith can you talk about that unity it's not the only reason you guys are united but that yeah yeah yeah yeah absolutely you know i've been on i've been on a lot of teams where that is something that unites guys uh we've always um before i even got here there was a bible study and things like that going on here and now we do it at my house carrier just carr derrick carrier just ran it uh at my house on monday night you know and we always have a group whole group of guys that show up and you know that that that's just we're human beings first you know that's that's the most important thing to to me is my faith you know whether i'm playing football or you know at home with my wife or on the road away from my family my the number one thing that keeps me going is that you know that's what i believe in that's what that's who i am you know football this game doesn't define who i am as much as i tried to let it earlier in my life um and and i there's a lot of guys on this team that share that common belief you know and so it's just been cool it's not like we're throwing bibles at people and things like that you know however people think you know they make stuff up all the time but you know it's definitely a common common thing um not just on this team but every team i've been around and other teams around the league there's a lot of things that go on so it was nice to see that but it's definitely the brotherhood you know no matter what you believe you know we're on one team it's a family you know and sometimes there's normal people and families sometimes they're crazy a little bit crazier people in some families but you're still a family and this family that we have has just decided to stay together no matter what and so it's been nice to see so far through two games that um that brotherhood really come come out um you know sometimes on the outside not a lot of people get to see it but every day we could see it and then when i got hurt you really saw it like oh wow you know these these guys being there for me was what meant a lot to me so i'm always given you know so when they were there for me it's pretty cool this won't be your first time going up against xavier howard yes how difficult the task is he and also how comfortable and how confident are you in the progression of guys like rugs and edwards to really go up against cornerback like this you know this sunday compared to last year's matchup yeah i think uh you know xavier howard is he i don't think he gets enough credit if i'm honest in the scheme that they run especially last year he had 10 interceptions and that scheme is ridiculous um the the fact that he's not talked as one of the very number one corners in the league up there with jalen and stefan and you know some guy oh yeah he's a good player you know oh yeah he's especially you look at his you know some madden ratings you know my nephews are always sending me oh this guy's mad around you guys but you don't look at that crap that stuff's lying to you is what it's doing and you know uh this guy this guy's unbelievable to play man-to-man coverage and have all these picks play man coverage on stefan diggs last week and pick a ball off insane the stuff that he's able to do is unbelievable and i don't think he gets enough credit um but with that said uh our guys i'm always confident in our guys you know i'm always going to give them chances and you're not going to be stupid about it you know you're not just going to give a you know try your best not to give a free one out there but you also are going to let you guys compete um but uh you try your best to go out there and you know read the plays out how we've designed them to be read out but we've always we've always taken the mindset of no matter who's out there man we're just going to compete and and be who we are and uh but with that there's a healthy respect for um for xavien and uh the kind of player he is he knows i've told him before what kind of i think the world of him and i think um he's absolutely one of the very best in league top top tier very top tier um and uh always excited to compete against him i know it's a different year but last year the dolphins were one of the few teams like they gave you a big challenge i lasted defensively against your offense um is there something that you could take from that i know it's a different year and what kind of challenges do they present yeah i i'm glad that you said that because you know everyone's feeling good about themselves you know going 2-0 and all that kind of stuff they don't hand any trophies out after two weeks you know and they don't give you any kind of anything you know we we have a team coming in here that you know got after us they beat us you know we got a team coming in here that who cares what happened last week as a competitor something happens the week before i know for sure they're gonna show up this week you know uh you know there's there's no doubt in our mind they're gonna be ready to play and they're gonna bring it and and on top of that we didn't beat them you know so we have nothing to feel good about you know we can be happy about things that have happened you're excited about the start and that's kind of where it ends because we got a team coming in here that they did have our number they did beat us and so uh this week in practice if we we don't have our mindset uh the way that it has been in prior weeks um you know then we'll fall on our face but hopefully and i believe especially after these first couple days that everyone's mindset is ready and we're ready for another fist fight you know that's what the nfl is and you got to set your mind for that at the at the early beginning of the week because they're going to come in here ready to play you guys haven't been able to run the ball as often as you probably would in the past because of the injuries i'm sure but i've been able to kind of keep defenses honest with that quick passing game and some of those shorter passages yeah you know what's nice is we have so many targets um obviously waller's gonna get the majority of them you know he's uh one of the best players in the nfl he's our best player you know um you know but i thought i thought last week the way that pittsburgh was doing things i think is pretty evenly spread out um and so you know you only have certain amount of plays in a period which ones you're going to card you know you're going to do all the hunters you're going to do brian's going to do henry's you know waller's obviously gonna work on that you know there's a lot to work on and with the variety of offense that we that we have um you know if if one thing maybe isn't going the way we want it to well then we go to this or we have this we can tap into that you know and i still feel there's some things that we haven't been able to do yet that i'm excited to show you know and uh the first two weeks also you have to look they the ravens and the steelers they draft they get free agents they do everything especially in that division to stop the run you know every decision they make we're going to stop the run first and you have to take that into account too is it's going to be tough sledding against those guys and you're going to do your best and all that but you know hayward's a heck of a player you know uh you know class campbell's a really good player you know you look at those defenses and you look at uh you know wilkins on this team a very really good player you know it's going to be tough sledding but that's the nfl so hopefully we find some looks that we like and and it works but at this point i'm at the point in my career i don't care if we run it a hundred times or throw it 70 like we just did i just want to win these games that's all that matters you talk about waller sorry you talked about waller and the targets that he got everybody knows how how important foster monroe is this team didn't get really targeted in the passing of the first game you went to him in the first throw on sunday i mean was that was that kind of plan was that in your guys mind of like hey let's get him involved early completely honest no you know we put people in positions that they'll be in the progression and you know certain there's there's a hundred times where while there's been not a hundred times but there's a lot of times where waller's gone for 150 or 100 yards and if you look at the second progression that guy's wide open and he could have easily you know had 150 yards you know what i mean and so uh the way coach gruden just designs it and sets it up um you know for my eyes i'm just going to read them out true and try and be as best i can on that but it's never like an emphasis like oh man he didn't touchable we got to make sure like our guys are so unselfish that we don't have to think that way it's kind of really nice it's actually a benefit that we have that we don't have to think oh gosh he's going to be upset or he's going to want to go somewhere out like our guys are so unselfish man that they're good just as long as the ball is moving you know and we're all doing our job seriously eric with all the uh the injuries and the moving parts on the offensive line how are you able to just compartmentalize and not worry about that when it's happening in the middle of a game you know i think it's just uh experience you know rep after rap you know you get you get used to a guy in your face throwing a football and those kind of things and um you know honestly i've been in the game and i'll look in the huddle finally i'll be like oh wow so-and-so is hurt you know like oh you're you know like you're just so in the in the mode of the blitzes the coverages getting the right play all that kind of stuff um you know that that you just it's next man it's so next man up it's so cliche in football but it's so true you know someone goes down you have to step in and fill that role and it's happened you don't want it to but it's happened here so much you know i've seen so many faces in here that it's actually helped me you know where i still have to find a way to execute i still have to find a way to play at a high level regardless of what's going on like i told you i don't want i don't want or need a perfect situation man i just i just want guys that love football and that will compete with me and uh we that's definitely something that we have what does that say i'm sorry what does that say about then the quality the guy the quality of the play of the guys that are coming in yeah very very high level um you know i i think mr mayok and coach gruden don't get enough credit um for the guys that they've brought in obviously everyone just goes and looks at a draft pick or looks at this or that and those are decisions but so are the other decisions where guys are coming in you know off the street to play you know whatever position for us and playing at a high level you know those are those are still two decisions of football players for our team and so um i don't think they get enough credit uh i don't think honestly that they care to you know but but just from me caring about them i don't think they get enough credit for the kind of guys they bring in because really anywhere you look for us inside our building if someone goes down well we feel good you know about the next guy like at every position you know quarterback you know running back you look everywhere we got guys that can play football so it may be a different style but you know we feel good about those guys you mentioned being down the 2-0 road before in coaches too and you don't win trophy or get a parade for that but can you still allow yourself to be infused with confidence because you beat two perennial contenders and there are 24 teams who would like to be in the position you are right now heading into week three yeah absolutely i mean we should have confidence you know um i think i think everyone knows i mean i think that we're a good football team you know we're definitely a good football team but you know people saying you're a good football team is different than going out and executing you know i think that's the thing we're trying to hide and stay away from is really the pats on the back you know tell me what i did wrong tell me what i can do better you know and just keep that arrow going forward instead of settling you know i think that's what we're trying to hide away from there's definitely confidence that we know we're a good football team you know we definitely feel that way but feeling that way and actually going out and winning football games is the two different things so we don't want to rest in what we've done we kind of want to look ahead and hopefully continue to be hungry because it honestly doesn't matter how many games we win it's still not enough you know and that's the mindset is uh it's it's not enough until you're in the dance and you win the last game it just won't be enough and i think that's the culture that coach green has been trying to create here and i think it's something that we've bought into and hopefully we can sustain through the season i don't know if you saw the flight back but the point at the end of the game harbaugh looks at lamar and he says do you want to go for it yeah it says he just turned around doug john's been your biggest supporter of the trust between the coach and the quarterback in terms of what the quarterback says hey let's go for let's do this whatever maybe this is somewhat transitioned in two games to be a big play offense and a lot of 20-plus yard plays you just talk about what that means that elevated confidence knowing that he just has to ask you that question and you tell him we're good he's good with it the trust between that you have what you've grown in and this becoming that big play offense yeah i think it's time on task one you know if that's lamar's you know second or third game obviously you have confidence in him but i don't think the coach is going to ask the quarterback you know same with me my second or third grade gruden wasn't asking me if i liked a certain play during the game you know he's calling the play executed you know that kind of thing but time on task is you prove over time that you can execute at a high level and uh that they can trust you in crucial situations and uh there's definitely this time in the game last week where gru's like hey you like this you want this and i'll look at him like yes do it and hit he'll call it you know and uh that i believe it's execution at a high level and uh time on task experience together and that's two things that coach gruden and i have and you saw with coach harbaugh and lamar that they obviously have um is time on task and a high execution rate so uh for us um you know coach gruden and i we we think the same we literally make the same drive to and from work um you know we're literally neighbors you know we we we eat the same food in here we're talking the same language all the time like we have that's been doing for four years we've been doing a lot of the same things so that when it comes to those situations he can just look at me and he'll just say something in the headset and i'll look at him and i'll be like yes or no you know and uh you know so far it's been it's been good for us i kind of unrelated to football last week your good friend devonte adams was talking to the media he said that he had a little uh disdain for your new haircut yeah yeah conversation with him about that yeah absolutely and uh he didn't know that i was growing my hair out you know and so he he texted me back he said okay i didn't he said i knew you he said i knew you were a dread head so uh that was his response back to me so devonte he was he offered his you know to have a barber sent to my house because he's used to the buzz cut uh but but he he held off because he didn't know that i was growing it out so yeah i've had everyone reaching out about my hair now because they i haven't had my hair this long since literally i was like 13 years old you know so everyone's like freaking out like what's wrong you know but nothing is wrong uh i just i just decided i didn't want to cut it honestly it was one day during camp i was like i'm too tired i don't want to cut it and then i was like from there i was like i might as well grow it out good big award for you obviously for your performance this week just what does it feel when you when you receive that kind of attention yeah i mean it's a you know obviously a team thing um you know the whole unit as a whole 14 points in the game that's that's huge deal for that win and stuff so you know for me every kick whether i have one kick or you know five six whatever it may be you know everyone has the same exact value you know it's points for the team and um you know we're we're glad we were able to capitalize on a few opportunities uh this past game and you know get an award just kind of a cherry on top you guys make some pressure kicks in the first couple of weeks what kind of goes through your head how you kind of calm yourself i mean the main thing is just preparation preparation you know you don't have to worry about hey this is a big moment you know i've been in this moment 100 million times it feels like now you know with practice kicks and game kicks and you know now i've gotten some experience where you know i'm starting to really get comfortable and whether it be you know first game of the season or the last game of the season you know all the kicks are trying to be um you know the exact same basically so um yeah big couple weeks and you know some important kicks but i mean for me i treat it treated the same and you know trying to make every single cake the same even though you said like you kicked almost a hundred the pressure kicked out of your career where would you rank that kid against volkswagen uh i mean it was definitely a big kick you know we we know what their offense could do if we you know um or baltimore excuse me sorry um yeah i mean to tie up that game and stuff but you know i i had a lot of confidence that the offense would do their job to you know get us in and it kind of happened quick where you know we had a couple plays and all of a sudden we're in field goal range and we decided to kick it and um but i mean that was it was an awesome opportunity where you know i was excited we we knew if we take it to overtime we all felt like we had the confidence to you know find a way to win and we ended up doing that and so um it's all about just stacking these wins now one one after another you know in those type of situations teams often like to call a timeout yeah quicker kicker so to speak is there a process that you guys go through or you go through in those situations we uh we as specialists and stuff we especially on fridays we kind of go through some situations just so you know whether it's we run out there and you know we're about to kick fake call time out and then you know take 30 seconds just hang out there you know just so you're comfortable in those situations you kind of know your routine and stuff because yeah it is different sometimes um but you know it's the same thing that happens after you know a lot of times we'll kick after a quarter ends or something you kind of have a break or you know obviously derek when he went down uh before that pat you know it gives me time to you know hey i know what i like to do and kind of my routine um just in preparation obviously i was concerned about what you know derek was doing but at the same time you know that that one point may be the difference in the game so you know i have to do my job and then check on derek later so right he's doing okay are you the kind of guy that just don't talk to me right here and let me be or do you mind the interaction yeah i mean there's a there's a little of both you know i think there's a certain amount of hey you know chat up with the guys get those alignment you know give them some water and get them a breather real quick and you know just give them a quick fist bump and stuff but like after that it's just you know hey i gotta refocus and get ready for this kick like i would any other kick fair or not kickers have an assumed delicate psyche yeah how does adversity affect you how do you respond yeah i mean it's definitely a very different position out there you know we're kind of almost like golfers out on a football field you know it's it's more of a mental sport for us a lot of times than it is physical and so you know for me that's something where experience is definitely paid off you know that's why you see kickers that are a lot older in the league so you know i think mentally and you know i've grown a lot over the last few years in the nfl and that's definitely paid off but you know just personality and you know just self-belief all that stuff is is huge but i definitely think that's at least 50 percent of kicking and you know always will be when you see a fellow kicker when you're watching the game maybe fail in a situation a big situation where you kind of feel for that knowing yeah i i mean i i have a hard time ever cheering against the kicker and you know i think we kind of all get to know each other over the years you know just exchange ideas and stuff just like quarterbacks would around the league stuff like that um so you know i obviously am not wanting the other team to necessarily necessarily succeed but it's definitely hard for me to cheer against it you know a lot of times it's a friend it's a guy i know and um but i would love for us to block a kick or do something like that make good play um you know but it definitely is something where yeah i've been in negatives and i've been in you know good situations too so um you know you just have to ride the waves sometimes daniel you talk about adversity before you overcame adversity that at one point during training camp that the world is overcoming time in terms of being on the cobia list was there a sense of relief a sigh relief that maybe uh dying down to the anxiety when you made that first kick the first game whatever it may be stepping on the field and just did maybe reflecting on the downtime that you had in that yeah how scary a time we're still living in but you overcame that yeah absolutely you know i think football is always a great kind of lesson for life uh you know for especially for us players you know we there's highs and lows and a lot of adversity sometimes you know i've been cut before i've you know had tough seasons have tough kicks before and you know you can a lot a lot of times you can learn a lot more from those tough times and you know obviously outside of football we've got a lot of tough things going on kovit all that you know i experienced that so you know glad to you you appreciate when you get to come back from those moments and you know what you can learn from those moments and you know take advantage of hopefully you know full healthy season here and um you know hopefully we keep sacking these wins you only had one game with fans at allegiant stadium to uh to kind of get used to it but yeah does backdrop matter in the sense of like you're kicking one end you're kicking to fans one end you're kicking to a nightclub yeah does that matter uh no i so i i don't really notice that i'm kind of picking out a target on the goal post so you know everything else kind of fades away and stuff um it's kind of there's that baseball movie where you get the tunnel vision and stuff it's kind of like that um but obviously it's an awesome awesome atmosphere and stuff and you know we're very fortunate to play in an environment like that you know have that be our home arena yeah daniel it's uh i think it's clear the mechanism yeah clear exactly yeah yeah i couldn't think of it it's been two years but how would you compare i guess how different is it kicking off of this new grass as opposed to kicking off the infield dirt and open yeah it's definitely different um like i said we're very fortunate and you know oakland was obviously a really cool experience to you know kind of close out that chapter and you know play on that baseball field for you know get to experience that but as a kicker and i'm sure many other positions uh definitely like the perfect grass that we have out in the legion i don't know if it changes like week to week or you know if you feel different at different times like is there a length of field goal you're you'd say you're comfortable with right now at allegiant like that's that's what i would tell coach like i'm good from that yeah i i think you know obviously weather and stuff so if we're home away depending where we're at um and there's certain weeks where you know the legs a little slower than other weeks um but that's kind of you know we do our pre-game routine and we kind of figure out but at the end of the day too you know if if i hit and pre-game a 60-yard field goal i could probably add a couple more yards with you know the adrenaline you get in a game and you know certain situations before half might as well swing away and stuff so you know we do a good job of communicating that with coaches and stuff and you know hopefully we'll get some shots at some long ones here and there but hey more extra points are better too about how things are mental how much does having guys like trent and aj really help you into kind of like easing your mind yeah i mean it's huge i think we're the longest tenured group together in the nfl right now so you know we're i think we're still young guys and you know we feel like young guys but you know we've been doing this together for a few years now and stuff and i think it just keeps getting better and better um and you know we just have the same coaches and same you know o-line you know protecting a lot of times and stuff so that that that helps a ton i'm just you know that comfort level and you know be able to trust in those guys talk about where you're comfortable at and with adrenaline have you gone through during practice at any level or um what's the longest that you've kicked maybe out of practice uh you know obviously you can look it up in a game both yeah what's the longest did you put maybe in a competition with another place kick yeah i i mean back kind of coming out of college i used to actually hit a lot longer and you know kind of mess around with it and back in colorado you know where i'm originally from i used to i hit a 75-yarder indoor at the air force academy one time and you know but i i've changed some things where realistically in a game i'm probably never going to kick a 75-yarder and so i'm willing to give up a few yards for a little more accuracy and that's something kind of with experience and maturity i've i've learned and i'm willing to give up a few yards for that um so you know i'm comfortable probably 60 in in any given day for the most part and then you know there may be a few yards depending on wind how my leg feels stuff like that um you know just different atmospheres and all that so um but yeah hopefully i if i do get an opportunity like that that's fun but you know hopefully it's just kicks that i are makable a lot easier makeable kicks a lot more extra points are always good so hopefully it's just anything i can do to help the team i'm sure it doesn't matter to you but you're you're one of the most picked up fantasy players this week wow that's huge like obviously those things don't matter but like i'm sure like they get those kind of things like circulate get under radar yeah what is that like it's just a person to be like oh people are focused on some numbers well i will say i actually played against myself in fantasy this week in my own like friend group fantasy uh and so that was tough because i took a loss and i definitely definitely contributed to that but uh no so it's fun i think fantasy is is great um you know it just gets people kind of more involved in specific players and you know in football in general so um you know i have a lot of fun with it with my college friends and you know a lot of people are messaging me and telling me hey you did great for me in fantasy i was at a apple orchard the other day and someone random guy came up to me and told me i did a great job for his fantasy team so yeah i think people are very invested in their fantasy teams and i think that's great again you said about the 75-yarder you get you know lane kiffin once had sea bass attempt a 76-yarder i have seen that yes i yeah so we'll see like i said i i don't think i'll ever kick a kick that far but um you know if i ever do get sent out there you know that means the coaches believe i can do it and you know that's that's fine and i i like i said we we communicate we're on the same page with that so um yeah if if i get sent out for a long one i'm expecting to make it and you know the coaches are expecting me to make that too so that's good awesome thank y'all [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter]

Channel: Raiders

Views: 67,920

Rating: 4.9117818 out of 5

Keywords: raiders, las vegas raiders, livestream, live, presser, silver and black, raiders interviews, sound, podium, coach gruden, saints, patriots, football, gruden, guenther, paul guenther, patrick mahomes, win, derek carr, henry ruggs, josh jacobs, tom brady, bruce arians, chris godwin, browns, week 9, bolts, gus bradley, 2021, mike mayock, 2021 training camp, raiders camp, 2021 nfl, camp, carl nassib, la rams, los angeles

Id: mYEnYBEus9Q

Length: 47min 46sec (2866 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 22 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/ButterflyBloodlust]

How about KJ giving love to Jefferson and Hobbs? We've got some real leaders on this team, and I love their approach.

[u/Save2faBackupCodes]

Gruden has some really good quotes in this

[u/landraid]

"There's enough negativity out there to kill any rat." - our sage Jon Gruden