Interim coach Bisaccia has Raiders’ respect
Derek Carr walked onto the practice field Wednesday waiting to hear one voice.
“I was waiting for him to click in the headset and start talking to me. Make a joke, make me laugh, get me going, fire me up,” Carr said.
But there’s an abrupt new era in Las Vegas, where Jon Gruden is no longer making jokes about anything, and special-teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia is the interim coach of the Raiders.
“[Bisaccia] has got as much respect in the locker room — in our locker room — as any coach I’ve ever seen in my life,” Raiders general manager Mike Mayock said at the team’s practice facility.
“Is he a great coach? Hell yeah. But he’s an even better man. And what I’ve always told people when I’ve endorsed him is that he’s the most natural leader of men that I’ve ever been around.”
Bisaccia, in his 20th season as an NFL coach, steps in for Gruden, who resigned Monday after reports surfaced of emails he sent before being hired in 2018 that contained racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments.
“No one wants to be a head coach in this particular situation, no one wants to be put in front of this under these particular circumstances,” Bisaccia said. “But it’s an incredible opportunity, not only for me, but for all the other coaches to see what we can do with this adversity.”
Gruden will be dropped from the Madden NFL 22 video game after he resigned as Raiders coach. EA Sports tweeted that it was “taking steps to remove” Gruden from the latest version of its popular game.
Jones back at Titans practice
Titans wide receiver Julio Jones returned to practice after missing the last two games with an injured hamstring. Jones and fellow receiver A.J. Brown practiced during the portion open to reporters, and Jones ran well during the individual drills.
Asked before practice if Jones would return, Vrabel said only that reporters would be able to report on what happened during individual drills. Despite missing two games, Jones leads the Titans with 204 yards receiving.
More injury updates
Panthers coach Matt Rhule said running back Christian McCaffrey is “50-50” for the game against the Vikings on Sunday. McCaffrey
has missed the last two games with a hamstring injury and the team has lost both.
Daniel Jones has made some progress since suffering a concussion last weekend and there’s a chance the Giants quarterback will play against the Rams on Sunday.
The Chiefs practiced without five key starters, including wide receiver Tyreek Hill (bruised quadriceps) and pass rusher Chris Jones (lingering wrist injury).