Raiders ST Coach Tom McMahon From Training Camp
The 2023 NFL Training Camp for the Las Vegas Raiders is progressing, and today Special Teams Coach Tom McMahon spoke, and we have his entire comments for you.
Transcript
00:00 (air whooshing)
00:02 - Tom, obviously it's the first day in pads,
00:08 it's always physical,
00:09 but you guys kind of took it to another level today
00:11 with the tackle and everything.
00:12 As a coach, what is it kind of,
00:13 what responses elicit from you
00:15 when you see that level of physicality from the players?
00:17 - Oh, the biggest thing is, is, you know,
00:18 we have to be great strikers, you know, in both phases
00:21 and kick cover and then kick off return.
00:22 You have to control and sustain and maintain leverage,
00:25 you know, throughout the block.
00:26 You got to control and maintain leverage
00:27 throughout the coverage part of it.
00:29 And then the other thing you do, you got to shed, you know?
00:32 So it was great to see those facets.
00:34 We did not take anyone to the ground
00:35 in any of our special teams drills,
00:37 so we didn't get to see them tackle,
00:38 but we were live to the ball.
00:40 It was nice to see that and see the fits,
00:42 and it was really good for the young players
00:44 to see that speed coming down at them.
00:46 We've had controlled speed in all of our drills,
00:48 you know, to protect, which it should be,
00:50 and now they can see true speed.
00:52 - As a football coach, but one that's intense like you,
00:56 is it just better when pads are on,
00:58 because it's more like real football?
01:00 - Yes. I mean, bottom line, yes, for me.
01:03 Yes, sir.
01:04 - As it gets closer, we've had more time to process
01:07 the new kickoff rules.
01:08 How different do you think it's going to look
01:09 this year in the league?
01:11 - I'd be guessing if I said,
01:12 I think that situationally,
01:15 guys are going to fair catch the football,
01:17 you know, when they need to.
01:18 You know, we got great head coaches in this league.
01:20 I feel like we have the best,
01:21 but we have great head coaches in this league.
01:23 They're going to make decisions.
01:24 You know, you got leads in the second half,
01:26 so on and so forth, you know?
01:28 Early on, you're trying to pin them.
01:29 I don't know that it's going to change,
01:31 really, the philosophy,
01:33 but there's going to be some different kicks.
01:35 You know, that's the biggest thing that we're working on,
01:37 is there are going to be some weird kicks
01:38 to try to force returns.
01:40 And everybody knows they call them squibs,
01:41 but you might get line drives,
01:42 you might get all kinds of different kicks
01:44 that get some spin on them and things like that.
01:46 - Mike, when we talked to you earlier,
01:48 you didn't know yet what your plan was,
01:51 and I'm not asking you to give it to us,
01:52 because you won't.
01:53 But do you guys know what you're going to do?
01:55 Do you, or have you formulated your plan?
01:58 - No, and I'm going to be upfront with you,
02:00 we need to do that in the preseason.
02:02 You understand what I'm saying?
02:03 We need to see what this is going to do,
02:05 and we need to try some of those things
02:07 that we may do within that plan,
02:09 and see, hey, good ball, bad ball.
02:11 - As a coach, do you kind of like that challenge
02:14 of, all right, they took something away,
02:15 or tried to take something away,
02:16 but there's ways for you to adjust now to that.
02:19 - Yes, sir.
02:20 Yeah, you know, you can go find schemes within that rule.
02:23 You know, anytime somebody writes a rule,
02:25 there's schemes in there,
02:27 that you can find, and you can take advantage of.
02:30 - Which probably led to this decision, right?
02:31 I mean.
02:32 - Agree.
02:33 - Yeah.
02:34 - So, Nick, how different is like coverage,
02:37 and like responsibilities of coverage guys,
02:39 between a smooth kick, and a, you know,
02:42 kicking those up?
02:43 - The coverage rules aren't going to be much different.
02:45 It changes a lot for the kickoff return unit,
02:47 naturally, because there's no hang time.
02:49 So the drops are going to be shorter,
02:51 because we're going to get the ball in our hands.
02:53 For example, if you're the returner,
02:54 you're going to get it in 3.2 seconds,
02:56 versus sometimes 4.2 seconds.
02:58 Okay?
02:59 So there's disadvantages also,
03:01 because you don't have enough time to cover,
03:02 when you start to squib this ball.
03:04 You know, so guys are going to get tricky.
03:05 There's some good coaches in this league.
03:07 They're going to put it all over the field,
03:08 and they'll put spin on it, and things like that.
03:10 And we got to be ready for everything.
03:11 - Throughout the practices,
03:12 you've had a lot of guys kind of build in points,
03:14 and building the kick returns.
03:16 A guy that I saw kind of catch a couple today,
03:18 was a Trey Tucker.
03:19 Can you just talk about the progression he's made,
03:21 from coming into rookie camp to now?
03:23 - Yeah, you know, Trey's done a great job.
03:25 People have to realize that Trey was a kick returner,
03:27 Cincinnati, you know.
03:28 So Trey naturally can catch kickoffs.
03:31 You know, and what he's done for us,
03:32 he's done a great job of,
03:34 and he's got a ways to go, we all have a ways to go,
03:36 but he's really trying to learn how to catch punts.
03:38 You know, and an NFL punt is 1,000, 1,000, 1,000% different
03:42 than a college punt.
03:43 Okay, there's not a lot of guys in college,
03:45 that can hit 5-0, 4-5's, and it's a rollout play.
03:48 As all of you know in this room,
03:50 the college punt is Mars, and we're on Earth.
03:52 Okay, they can roll out,
03:53 and everybody can release when the ball snapped,
03:55 and so you get the rugby punts.
03:56 You don't get any of those.
03:57 You have to pocket punt pretty much in this league.
03:59 So he has to get under balls and catch 'em,
04:01 and what I like is, he has taken Danny Amendola's coaching,
04:05 okay, he's taken DC, Hunter, all those guys,
04:08 and he's trying to emulate them because they do it right.
04:11 You know, he's got the best coach in the league
04:12 that's done this for many years.
04:14 - Nate Hobbs takes some punts,
04:16 I think, and maybe some kickoffs,
04:17 but I don't remember him doing that last year.
04:19 I'm just wondering, is that something
04:20 that he came to you guys with, or vice versa,
04:22 to maybe add to his repertoire?
04:25 - You know, I'll be honest,
04:26 I don't know if I've seen Nate back there.
04:28 I don't know.
04:29 I don't know who's been back there.
04:31 You know, some guys are just going back,
04:33 and I don't know who they are.
04:34 (laughs)
04:36 Sorry, you know where I'm coming from there.
04:37 Yeah.
04:38 Not trying to be a jerk.
04:41 - How would you describe the growing relationship
04:43 between the new long snapper, Jacob,
04:44 and the two established kickers in--
04:47 - Solid.
04:48 You know, it's a professional relationship.
04:50 You know, we got great specialists here,
04:53 and the bottom line is, is they understand
04:55 that the greatest teammates of all time do one thing.
04:57 They produce.
04:58 They produce.
04:59 - Long snapper, Jacob.
05:00 What were some things about him, just as a player,
05:02 and as a person, that attracted you to him at Denver?
05:04 - A great person.
05:05 You know, the thing that he adds is,
05:07 you have to be able to, he's a snapper, okay?
05:09 So snappers have to have accuracy.
05:10 They have to have velocity.
05:11 They have to control laces on field goals,
05:13 so on and so forth.
05:15 But what he does, there's about five or six guys
05:16 in this league that can cover kicks.
05:18 You know, he was a defensive lineman/outside linebacker
05:21 at Northern Colorado.
05:22 You know, he was converted into a snapper.
05:25 Luke Rhodes at Indianapolis, you know,
05:27 who's the perennial pro bowler, was a linebacker,
05:29 you know, in the core, actually for me,
05:31 when I was in Indianapolis for two years,
05:32 and we converted him.
05:33 So a lot of guys now are trying to find that guy
05:35 that also is a coverage factor.
05:37 'Cause now you're covering with 10, you know?
05:39 And I get it, you know, AJ's a coverage factor too,
05:41 'cause he's got to place the ball,
05:42 but we don't want him making tackles.
05:44 If AJ's making tackles, you know, I won't be up here.
05:48 (laughing)
05:49 - Okay.
05:50 - Thank you guys.
05:51 - Thank you Coach.