Las Vegas Raiders Coach Antonio Pierce's final presser before the Minnesota Vikings contest.
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00:00 a weekly thing, but with Max and Colton, what's their status?
00:04 >> Yeah, day to day, I mean, both coming along.
00:06 We'll see what Colton, a little bit more today, hopefully.
00:09 I would expect Max to be ready to roll.
00:11 >> Is this kind of how it's gonna be handled, do you think, with Max,
00:15 the rest of the season, just sort of managing him?
00:17 >> Yeah, just manage him.
00:17 I think he doesn't miss many snaps.
00:20 We're okay.
00:21 He understands the defense well.
00:22 It's really about managing the player, making sure we take care of his health
00:25 first, and don't have anything happen to him that would be significant after
00:29 the season, that's first and foremost, and we'll go from there.
00:32 >> But you feel like we're ready to go on something else?
00:34 >> What I've got, what I've got, that's what I'm talking about.
00:37 >> AP, I was talking to Braylon Edwards this week about you, and
00:40 he shared that even when you guys were players,
00:44 your friends thought you were a coach, a head coach.
00:48 Has it always been something you aspired to?
00:50 Cuz your friends saw it, is it something that you dreamed of?
00:54 >> Well, when you look at a head coach, what's the first quality you look for?
00:58 Leadership.
00:59 I've kind of always had that, I felt.
01:02 My narrowest follower, kind of went to my own beat,
01:06 my own steps and wasn't afraid of it.
01:08 Only looked at my shadow, and obviously learned from my mistakes.
01:11 But yeah, I think just the way I approach myself, again, being only child,
01:16 always had to defend for yourself, not always being the top pick,
01:19 that I'm one guy, and you find other ways to find your way through life and
01:24 through sports, and for me, and having belief in myself through hard work,
01:29 I felt that was something I was a strength of mine.
01:32 >> Coach, how much will you learn about Aiden in this game with the team in
01:35 Minnesota that likes to blitz as much as they do?
01:37 How challenging will that be for the young quarterback?
01:39 >> Well, I think we had a good practice run the week before with the Chiefs, right?
01:42 So this would be a good one, really good defense, we know it, right?
01:45 Five, six man pressure, blitz coverage, great job disguising it.
01:48 We've talked enough about that.
01:50 It'd be critical, I don't think it's really all on Aiden, right?
01:53 Offensive line, our running backs, our tight ends,
01:56 our receivers need to be dialing in to what we're doing,
01:59 understand that they're gonna bring plus one.
02:00 They've done it no matter what quarterback you are, what team you are,
02:03 that's what they're gonna do.
02:04 And we're expecting it, hopefully we've wrapped it and prepped it enough that
02:08 Aiden is comfortable in it.
02:09 Obviously, we had a bye week to talk about that as well,
02:11 put a plan together that works.
02:13 >> As a former linebacker who has been part of game plans to maybe nullify a
02:17 younger quarterback or confuse a younger quarterback, do you have a kind of
02:20 an appreciation or an understanding of what teams are trying to do to confuse?
02:25 >> Yeah, I told him exactly what we do.
02:26 If we were playing against them, I'd blitz the hell out of them.
02:28 Try to hit them and make them frustrated,
02:30 make them look down instead of down the field.
02:33 Look at the rush and told them that you just gotta be confident,
02:35 you gotta stay in the pocket.
02:36 Best thing about them now, they really can't hit you, buddy.
02:39 Let's be honest, they can't hit you like they wanna hit you, right?
02:42 You say that.
02:44 So he's protected a little bit by the rules, so be smarter in that case.
02:47 And in that sense, I think that's a benefit for young quarterbacks and
02:50 offenses if you really look at it that way.
02:52 But understand that they're under pressure.
02:53 They're gonna try to make him uncomfortable, throw off his back foot,
02:55 make a wrong read or a false read early on.
02:59 And he has to be confident in what Bo and
03:01 our coaching staff has put in place for him.
03:03 >> Going back to Max, we have a player like that that's playing for something.
03:07 How do you go about balancing that as a coach between weighing the long-term risk
03:11 with obviously his desire to- >> Keep working with our medical staff.
03:15 And right at this point, there's nothing there.
03:16 It's just something he's gonna have to deal with.
03:18 But if we can manage the pain and the suffering that he goes through throughout
03:22 the week, cuz you know he's not gonna be 100% till after the season.
03:25 That's where it's my job to protect the player from himself.
03:28 And you know Max, if he goes out there, he's gonna go 100.
03:31 And I thought in the game against the Chiefs, we did a good job of managing.
03:34 All right, he played close to 48, 49 snaps, I believe, to enter the whole game.
03:39 But anytime something that I didn't feel good about, we pulled him out and
03:42 we tried to protect the player.
03:43 But me and Max looked each other in the eye and I said, man,
03:47 you gotta promise me that you're gonna take care of yourself.
03:49 And if there's anything that goes wrong, you look at me and
03:51 we make that decision that you're done.
03:54 And he's been a pro about that.
03:57 >> Your offensive lineman early on talked about enjoying having you in the room.
04:01 Are you still spending significant time in there?
04:04 >> They do? They like me in the room?
04:05 >> Yeah. >> I can tell you, no, no.
04:06 Those ones, yeah.
04:07 I like being in there.
04:08 First of all, just being in the whole line room is different.
04:11 I don't think I've ever spent this much time in my life in the offensive line room.
04:14 It's different characters, different personalities, different coaching style.
04:17 It's different, it's different.
04:20 That's a different group.
04:21 But it's fun, man.
04:22 And I knew right away when the transition happened that that was the group I needed
04:27 to spend the most time with, to change their identity, their mindset,
04:30 to let them know that I appreciate what they're doing.
04:33 To let the coach know I appreciate what he's doing as well.
04:35 And that this is the style of play we wanna play going forward.
04:38 And I know big guys like to go forward first.
04:40 And that's our mindset, obviously, as you've seen.
04:42 We're gonna run the ball.
04:43 We'll do other things, and we got opportunity to throw it, we'll throw it.
04:46 But that's the mentality of most offensive linemen, right?
04:49 They wanna hit somebody in the mouth first.
04:51 We wanna be the guys that swing first.
04:53 >> When you look at a player like Justin Jefferson and you're starting a game plan,
04:56 how much do you hone in on somebody with his exceptional abilities?
05:01 >> Yeah, I mean, elite talent, right?
05:03 What number you wanna put him at?
05:04 I don't know, one, two, or three, but he's in one of those, right?
05:06 And it's a challenge.
05:08 The sad part about it, he hasn't been playing.
05:11 And I say that's for the game of football, right?
05:13 When you have an elite player, you wanna see it, you wanna watch him.
05:15 He's only played in five games, and he's been out, and now he's back.
05:17 He's well rested, full go, right?
05:19 He's not even on the injury report no more.
05:20 So we're gonna get the best number 18.
05:22 We expect the best from our players as well.
05:24 Great challenge for our young corners, right?
05:26 Jack Jones, Amik, Nate.
05:29 It's really good for those guys.
05:30 Tee Hall to really have a challenge this week and
05:33 pack around and put a game plan together to limit the best receivers that we're
05:36 gonna see this week.
05:37 >> Coach, when you look at a player like Amir Abdul, can you just talk about
05:41 the spark that he provides on special teams as well as in the running back room,
05:44 and kind of how he sets the tone for the rest of the team?
05:46 >> Well, I'm glad you talked about him, because here's a guy,
05:49 one of the first guys down here on kickoff on special teams, one of them.
05:53 Huge tackles, I don't know if he has 10 plus tackles on special teams,
05:55 which is a good year for a special teams player.
05:58 But just his physicality, you look at him,
05:59 you wouldn't think nothing about that, right?
06:01 But one of the stronger players, he plays that chip on his shoulder.
06:04 He's very dynamic, and then in the passing game for us on third down,
06:07 his ability to make plays.
06:09 And obviously, we gotta keep working on that and growing that role for
06:11 him as well.
06:12 But I just appreciate the selfishness.
06:14 Here's an elite running back, a guy that can really change the game, probably for
06:17 most teams, and he has to take a step back,
06:19 cuz we have one of the best running backs in our room.
06:21 >> Can you say the same thing about Brandon Bolton as well?
06:24 >> Yeah, to me, I think one thing about the league, coming back into it now,
06:28 that most teams don't appreciate veteran presence.
06:32 And to have a guy like Brandon who's in year 10, who's won,
06:36 who understands what the game is like, who understands what it's like to be a pro,
06:40 that's a blessing for Josh Jacobs.
06:42 That's a blessing for our running back room.
06:43 That's a blessing for our team and our offensive unit.
06:46 Because the experiences that he has, the maturity,
06:50 the knowledge, that resonates throughout not just our room and our building.
06:55 And he has that commune presence about himself that, listen,
06:58 when things ain't going right with Josh, just look on the side, look on the bench.
07:00 They're sitting right next to each other.
07:02 And that's really beneficial for us.
07:03 And obviously, does a really good job for us as special teams.
07:06 >> Since you've taken over, the physicality of this team has gone up considerably.
07:10 Obviously, that's a reflection of you and your leadership.
07:13 How happy are you with the way the guys have responded to your call for
07:17 being more physical?
07:18 >> Yeah, I asked them, and again, we talked about it a little bit earlier.
07:22 It's only so much you do with physicality, right?
07:23 We can't even put pads on now, but it's a mindset, right?
07:26 It's a mentality, it's a purpose of how we want it to look,
07:29 how we want it to sound, that when you watch it,
07:32 even if you can turn the sound off on the TV, you felt the vibration come through
07:36 the screen.
07:37 And to me, that's a reflection on the players buying in and
07:39 our coaching staff really believing and honing in on that, and
07:41 individual drills in our group periods.
07:44 But listen, man, when you got a defensive-minded coach,
07:47 a defensive-minded or former player, what you think you're gonna do?
07:50 I like scoring points, don't get it wrong, but I like doing it in a physical manner.
07:53 >> You guys good?
07:55 >> I'm good.
07:55 >> All right.
07:56 >> I appreciate you guys being here.
07:57 >> I will.
07:57 >> You can come through.
07:59 See what time you're on with them glide forces.