Raiders WR Deandre Carter From Training Camp
The 2023 NFL Training Camp for the Las Vegas Raiders is progressing, and today WR DeAndre Carter spoke, and we have his entire comments for you.
Transcript
00:00 (air whooshing)
00:02 - There's a pretty physical practice out there.
00:10 - Yeah.
00:11 - You guys enjoy that as players, you're going to welcome that?
00:13 - For sure.
00:14 First day of pads, it's always good to get out there
00:15 and pump a little bit.
00:16 It's going to be part of the identity of our team.
00:19 So we got to establish it now.
00:20 We definitely welcome that as players.
00:23 - Like you say, usually it's the stumping,
00:24 but you guys had some moments there
00:25 where you tackled to the ground out there.
00:27 Do you think that sort of thing could add to the toughness
00:29 that the team builds?
00:30 - For sure, definitely adds to the toughness of the team.
00:32 Got to establish it now, get out there,
00:34 especially for the young guys
00:35 who haven't necessarily experienced it in the league before.
00:38 It's definitely a good foundation to get it done in practice.
00:41 - DeAndre, you were previously kind of here before
00:43 and kind of like a practice squad, off season kind of thing.
00:46 So what are the big differences,
00:48 which you say from going from the team back then to now,
00:51 just in terms of your confidence
00:52 and just how things roll around here?
00:54 - Well, I can only speak for my,
00:55 I mean, me personally is just, I'm older now.
00:59 You know what I'm saying?
01:00 Can know how to navigate things a little better,
01:03 I would say.
01:04 And it's just a different culture now,
01:06 different culture staff, everything different now
01:07 from it was when I was previously here.
01:10 I love what we're doing now.
01:12 I would say more just excited to be a part of the,
01:18 excited to be a part of this organization for sure.
01:21 - DeAndre, every player on every team in the NFL today
01:23 would say, well, I'm always competing.
01:25 But when you're in a wide receiver room,
01:27 that's as incredibly as talented as the Raiders.
01:31 Does it feel like every rep is a competition?
01:34 Every rep is putting stuff on tape for everybody to see?
01:37 - I mean, that's, like you said,
01:38 that's everywhere around the league,
01:40 but we got a deep room, no lie.
01:41 We got a deep room from top to bottom.
01:44 And every rep, you want to go out there
01:46 and put your best foot forward
01:48 to make sure you put in the best subversion
01:50 of yourself on film and give yourself the best chance
01:52 to go out there and compete and win the job.
01:55 But that should be a standard as a player in the league,
01:58 no matter where you're at,
01:59 no matter how deep your receiver room is or not,
02:02 you just got to go out there and compete
02:03 and be the best yourself.
02:05 - DeAndre, last year, you established some career highs,
02:08 targets games, receptions.
02:11 Do you feel like you found your niche
02:14 and created your niche in this league?
02:16 And how excited are you to kind of build off of that?
02:19 - Very excited.
02:20 And always the goal is to get better and improve.
02:23 And that's all I'm focused on today.
02:26 Being here this year and throughout camp
02:28 is getting better every day
02:29 so I can improve on the things I did last year.
02:31 - Do you think this offense kind of fits
02:33 what your skillset is?
02:34 - For sure.
02:36 - You're not the biggest guy in the NFL, but you're tough.
02:39 And so are you glad pads are on?
02:41 'Cause now you can lower a shoulder
02:43 and show what you can do after the catch.
02:46 - Exactly.
02:47 Me, for myself, it's always,
02:51 football is not played in shorts and a t-shirt,
02:53 you know what I'm saying?
02:54 So you get pads on there
02:55 and you got to push crack on a safety or break a tackle,
02:58 or like you said, lower your pads down when you got the ball
03:02 kind of separates some people.
03:03 So I like that part of my game
03:05 and excited we was able to show it today.
03:07 - Do you think the new rules are trying
03:10 to take the kickoff return out of the game?
03:11 And what would you feel about that if that kind of happened?
03:14 - I think the league is just, you know,
03:16 trying to take care of players, you know, the kickoff.
03:18 I think they said the kickoff return
03:20 is one of the most dangerous plays in the league.
03:23 And they're trying to, you know, safe in a little bit.
03:25 I don't know necessarily
03:27 how we're going to go about that this year.
03:29 Hopefully we get to return them.
03:30 That's, you know, what I want to do,
03:32 but we'll see, you know,
03:34 what Coach Tom and Coach McDaniels wants to do
03:37 and whatever they're riding with, I'm okay with.
03:40 - DeAndre, besides changing cities and states,
03:43 how different does this organization feel to you now
03:45 than when you were on the practice squad back in Oakland?
03:48 - A lot different.
03:49 Beautiful building, different location.
03:51 You guys that was in the Alameda building
03:54 know the difference.
03:55 But I love it here, man.
03:58 I love it.
03:59 We're building a great culture.
04:00 It's a beautiful facility, beautiful stadium.
04:03 And we on the up and up,
04:06 and I'm excited to be a part of it.
04:07 - Obviously there's a lot of differences,
04:09 even from last year to this year,
04:10 but you being on the charts,
04:12 having a really good game against the Raiders,
04:14 you know, what were some things about that defense
04:16 that you kind of played against that, you know,
04:18 you really liked, that you were like,
04:20 okay, this is good, you know, that.
04:21 - You're talking about the Raiders defense last year?
04:26 - Yeah, like what was your thoughts
04:27 on the Raiders defense from last year?
04:29 - I mean, last year is last year.
04:32 We worried about this year.
04:33 We got new guys, new personnel,
04:35 probably tweaking the scheme a little bit.
04:38 So, you know, we worried about this year getting better.
04:41 - How happy were you with the weather today?
04:43 - Extremely.
04:44 Oh my God, it was beautiful out there today.
04:49 I wouldn't count on how many days it was going to get,
04:51 you know, what was it, probably like 85,
04:53 it felt like out there, it felt like California.
04:55 Yeah, it felt like California.
04:57 Don't know how many days it's going to get like that,
04:59 but taking advantage of them for sure.
05:01 - That's good.
05:03 All right, awesome.
05:04 - Thanks guys.