Rookie class shows promise, says GM Mike Mayock
The media got its first crack at Mike Mayock on Tuesday via Zoom teleconference, which is always a good thing because the Raiders general manager is pretty good at filling a notebook.
Mayock was not surprisingly short on specifics regarding a shoulder injury to wide receiver Tyrell Williams (he’s ready when he’s ready) and the return date of tackle Trent Brown (pretty soon) but did make the following observations with the regular season approaching on Sept. 13:
THE COyPETITIVE NATURE OF
TUESDAY’S PRACTICE >> (Mayock, by the way, believes competition is the lifeblood of a team.)
“I thought today’s practice was as competitive a practice as we’ve had. I thought Jon (Gruden) and the coaching staff did a great job. Gave them a couple of days to rest their legs, a lot of walk-through stuff. What that means to me is today is as good a practice as we’ve had for evaluating. I can’t wait to get upstairs and see it in tape. They competed their asses off.”
THE POSITIVE REVIEWS FOR THE 2020 ROOKIE CLASS >> “They’ve got a lot of pretty good press. A lot of people are patting them on the butt. You know what? It’s not time to anoint anybody yet. … The snapshot of the rookies has been good. But that doesn’t mean anything yet. They’ve got to compete on special teams. They’ve got to get off press coverage in real games.”
THE RECEIVING CORPS (yINUS WILLIAyS, AT LEAST TEyPORARILY) >> “Nelson Agholor is on a mission. And Zay Jones is also. They’re in as good a shape as any two players we have on this team. The route running from both of them has improved. We’ve seen a huge difference in Zay since last year. … I had a pretty good grade on (Agholor) coming out of USC. I think I know what he is, and I think we’re seeing the best of that version of Nellie in camp. You look at a guy like Rico Gafford. He got a little bit of a taste in the second half last year, and I think he likes it. He’s got one of those things you can’t coach called speed. I think (Marcel) Ateman has done a heck of a job.”
TRAYVON yULLEN’S UNDISCLOSED INJURY (HE yISSED PRACTICE TUESDAY) AND THE CORNER POSITION IN GENERAL >>
“I think Trayvon is going to be back sooner rather than later. As far as the corners, the thing I like about it most is competing. When I talk evaluation on tape, there’s still a couple of corners that I don’t feel like I know who they are yet.”
THE DEVELOPyENT OF DEFENSIVEENDARDENKEY>> “When I was at NFL Network, I did his Pro Day. I knew all about the kid coming out of LSU, some of the trials and tribulations he went through, some of the weight gains and losses. He’s a talented young man and I think this offseason was different for him. I think his commitment to the organization, and even more important, the commitment to his talent, those are both evident and they’re showing up right now.”
THE CONSTANT SHAPING OF AN NFL ROSTER >> “I saw a quote from Jerry Jones, they’re in the business of personnel 365 days a year. That’s the way I think you approach it from the personnel side. We’ve had a lot of transactions from the time I’ve been here and we’re going to evaluate every day. If we think we can upgrade a position,
we’re going to do it. That’s Jon’s attitude and it’s my attitude.”
CLOSING THE GAP IN TERyS OF DIVISIONAL OPPONENTS (KANSAS CITY, yAYBE?) >> “I sound like my dad, but the bottom line is all we care about is the Carolina Panthers (in the season opener Sept. 13) … You’ll get a pretty good idea if we can compete or not by what we put on the field. What did Bill Parcells say? You are what your record says you are. We expect to get better, we worked our tails off, but it’s got to show up on the field and there are no excuses, COVID or not.”
THE LEADERSHIP QUALITIES OF DEREK CARR >> “I’m just really pleased with the way Derek Carr has taken over this team. as he goes back to all the workouts he had with the players, and the players confirming their buy-in, that’s been awesome. I think he gets better every day with Jon in Year 3.”
THE PROGRESS OF yARCUS yARIOTA >> “He’s been everything as advertised as a person. He is coming off some physical stuff. Jon and I talked with Marcus about kind of rebuilding him from the ground up. His footwork, coming off the injury. He’s an absolute sponge.”
THE ADDITION OF ROD yARINELLI AS DEFENSIVE LINE
COACH >> “When you watch Rod Marinelli on a Pro Day, he coaches up the free-agent kid from a school that nobody ever heard of just as hard as he coaches up the first-round pick from a big school. We talked about the buy-in between Rod and the players, and it’s a twoway go. They know he coaches them harder than anyone else at practice, but Rod’s the only one allowed to curse. They’re his guys. Rod cares about what kind of fathers they are, husbands, what kind of brothers.”