Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast: Latest on the GM Search, Is It Coming to an End? Hunt For an OC
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00:00 Hi everybody, this is Hondo Carpenter from Sports Illustrated's FAN Nation Las Vegas
00:06 Raiders Insider Podcast.
00:08 It's great to be able to spend some time with you today.
00:11 Thank you for being with me.
00:12 Now I want to make a couple of really quick points.
00:16 Number one, this is not breaking, I'm not reporting this.
00:20 This is literally just my gut feeling.
00:23 Again, experience based on knowledge, etc.
00:32 I think today is probably going to be the day, could be tomorrow that the Raiders announce
00:36 a GM.
00:37 At this point, I still think it's going to be Champ Kelly.
00:44 I'll get into more on that, whether he gets the job or not, I'll get more into that after
00:49 the hiring of why I felt that way consistently throughout the process.
00:55 I will share that with you, I promise.
00:58 Additionally, I'm just saying that because if it is today and you're watching it later
01:03 in the day, I taped this, I think right now it's 2.12 in the morning.
01:08 Just wanted to make you aware of where we are as far as timeframes, so when you watch
01:13 the video you'll know.
01:14 There are three candidates for the GM job.
01:21 It's really still a two-horse race.
01:25 I'm going to explain all this in a minute, with my expectations still being that Champ
01:29 Kelly gets it.
01:30 I'm going to go through and talk about all of the different candidates, just so you have
01:37 some good working knowledge of each of them.
01:40 First is Tom Telesco.
01:42 Tom was the general manager of the Bolt of the Los Angeles Chargers.
01:50 Some of his strengths is he's a terrific evaluator of talent, really, really good.
01:57 He did not handle all of the contracts with Los Angeles.
02:03 I talked with several people.
02:06 He and I share some very good mutual friends, as well as I talked with some people in the
02:11 organization because they're in salary cap hell.
02:16 I was told by a member of the organization who really likes Tom, who potentially if Tom
02:22 were the general manager could maybe even come here, that said to me he didn't necessarily
02:29 handle all of the contracts.
02:32 But he did oversee it, and he goes if that was an area under his purview that struggled,
02:39 it would be the salary cap.
02:42 They're now $40 million over the cap.
02:45 $40 million over the cap.
02:47 Now Ziegler and Champ did a tremendous job with contracts and salary cap management.
02:57 So I'm not doing this, here's a Telesco, here's something that Champ does better.
03:02 But that's just the reality.
03:09 He hired Brandon Staley, one of the worst coaches in the NFL.
03:16 The bolts were stuck with him.
03:18 So we know that he's a Bill Pullian disciple, which means he learned from Bill Pullian,
03:24 who's one of the best.
03:25 He's not Ron Wolfe, who is the best, but Bill Pullian, man, he's up there as one of the
03:32 best general managers of all time.
03:34 So you like his pedigree.
03:37 Tremendously good man.
03:40 Tremendously good man.
03:41 Very honorable.
03:42 According to players, his word is everything.
03:46 He's trustworthy, which is, you've got to have that in a general manager.
03:51 Another thing that you got to have in a general manager is that they've got to be egoless
03:54 because the owner loves to be loved in every organization.
04:00 And the coach has to be loved for the respect issue.
04:03 So when you have a general manager who's all worried about what credit they get, what credit
04:08 they don't get, you create an avenue of a lot of trouble.
04:12 So you're going to get a guy who's egoless.
04:15 You're going to get a guy, if they go in that direction, who is a brilliant evaluator of
04:20 talent and somebody that I know, who I consider a great friend, not a good friend, a great
04:27 friend, been friends with them for gee whiz, 26 years, knows Tom exceptionally well, said
04:39 he's a brilliant evaluator of talent.
04:41 He's a man of character.
04:42 He's a man of integrity.
04:44 Again, maybe didn't do every contract in Los Angeles, but certainly as a general manager
04:52 was an overseer of it, and now they're in Cap Hell and then hired Staley.
04:59 Now I asked two different people, Staley was such a bad coach.
05:06 Why do you think he hired Staley?
05:08 And both, without knowing that I talked to the other, both pretty much had the same answers,
05:14 different words, but they talked about Sean McVeigh had been very, very popular and they
05:19 were looking and they thought he was looking for the next up and comer and just married
05:25 himself to the wrong guy.
05:27 Okay.
05:29 That happens.
05:31 Everybody swings and misses and strikes out.
05:34 But that's the story on Telesco.
05:38 To me, I think this is a guy that you probably would want in your organization.
05:44 But based upon the salary cap hell that they're in, Staley, I don't know that, well, let's
05:53 just say on ranking the candidates, I put him third.
05:57 I could see him joining the organization.
05:59 In fact, let me give you a quote that someone who knows him very well said, as soon as I
06:07 saw his name linked to the Raiders, I thought, man, this would be a great assistant GM job
06:14 for him.
06:15 So there's the story on Telesco again, Bill Pullian, disciple, man of integrity, man,
06:21 a great character, trusted, did not do all the contracts in Los Angeles and they're in
06:27 salary cap hell.
06:28 So it's very important to point that out.
06:30 But was the general manager and over it.
06:34 And the big Staley mistake.
06:37 Next of course, is Ed Dodds, which we've talked about a lot.
06:40 So I'm not going to talk about him a lot and it's not because I'm minimalizing him.
06:44 It's because we've already talked about him a lot.
06:46 This is a guy that's been with the Colts nine years.
06:50 Previous experience for another 12 with another NFL team.
06:57 This is a guy that very respected as an evaluator of talent.
07:03 He's never sat in the chair where Telesco and Champ have.
07:08 And Mark Davis has said in previous interviews that he would be nervous about having a first
07:14 time GM and a first time coach.
07:20 But Mark also said he wanted to hire the GM first.
07:24 So I mean, I don't and that's not a slam on Mark.
07:28 It's just the reality.
07:29 Sometimes what Mark likes and wants isn't what he does.
07:33 But Dodds has never been in the big chair, but he's very respected.
07:38 He's been in some organizations that have done a lot of good things and he's very well
07:42 respected.
07:43 I did not in all of my research on these three guys, there was not one negative that I heard.
07:50 Not one.
07:52 So find that to be very interesting.
07:55 And then Champ Kelly, who we already know is in the chair.
07:58 We've already talked to ad nauseum about his experience and everything that he's done.
08:02 The overhauling of the Raiders scouting department, the respect he already has in the building,
08:07 the respect he has around the league.
08:11 And he's already been in the chair.
08:12 So technically you're not hiring somebody who doesn't have experience.
08:15 He's been in there 10 weeks and the Raiders are in a very good shape salary cap wise.
08:23 And he was certainly part of that with Dave Ziegler.
08:26 So that's the three candidates.
08:29 Now when it's over, whether Champ gets the job or not, I will provide for you why I have
08:37 said all along that I thought he is the guy.
08:41 Well, if he gets the job, I won't.
08:45 It doesn't, okay, I will.
08:47 Sorry.
08:48 See, sometimes I disagree with myself, so that's why I don't have a problem with critics.
08:52 But whether he gets the job or not, I'll talk about why I've said all along, I think he
08:57 is the number one candidate.
09:00 I still think that Champ gets it.
09:03 I certainly think that Dodds has a good chance to get it.
09:08 I don't think this is a slam dunk for Champ.
09:12 If I were doing the hire, slam dunk.
09:16 I don't think it is, but I still think Champ's there.
09:19 And then Dodds and then Telesco's down the list a little bit, but I think he's in third
09:23 place.
09:24 Again, my anticipation, and I'm doing this super early in the morning on Tuesday, but
09:34 my anticipation was that we'll probably get this announcement today.
09:41 But who knows, right?
09:44 I said on a national radio show yesterday, I mean, if it's not Champ Kelly, this is a
09:51 colossal bungling of how it's been handled.
09:57 Hey, I've not heard one bad thing, talking about personal, character-wise, of any of
10:04 the three candidates.
10:05 Not one.
10:06 All three have done a lot of good.
10:12 So whoever they hire, I have no dog in the hunt.
10:16 I think they should hire Champ.
10:21 I respect Champ.
10:23 I like Champ.
10:24 Know Champ.
10:26 So do I want to see my friend ascend to the job?
10:29 Yeah.
10:30 I think he's earned it.
10:31 I want to see anybody that's earned something get it.
10:36 And I think he's perfect for the Raiders.
10:38 But whoever they hire, I have no reason to dislike the hire because they're good people
10:46 and they're people who do their jobs at a high level.
10:50 Sometimes I would point out, just not the experience, in Talesko, I would point out
10:55 the Staley and the Salary Cap situation.
11:00 I've had a lot of you ask me, what do you think about adding more than one of them,
11:06 like they did last time with Champ and Ziegler?
11:09 I totally believe that's on the table.
11:13 In fact, I know for a fact that there's been discussion about it.
11:26 That's all I know.
11:29 I think if you could, anytime you add good people to your organization, that is a brilliant
11:35 move.
11:36 Brilliant move.
11:38 I'm friends with a very, very, very successful businessman.
11:43 I remember one time we were going on a hunting trip and he met this person who was extremely
11:52 helpful to us and very good.
11:53 Now they had no idea that this person is mega wealthy, mega, thousands of employees.
12:02 They just saw two guys in jeans and we were on our way on a hunting trip.
12:08 This person was so helpful that he looked at this lady and said, "Would you be willing
12:14 to relocate if you got a job making enough money?"
12:19 She said, "Yeah, I think I would."
12:22 He goes, "Do you have any degrees?
12:24 Do you have any skills?"
12:26 She just shares a few things with him.
12:28 He literally said to her, "I'm going to ask you a personal question.
12:31 I'm married.
12:32 I'm not hitting on you, but I own a couple of companies.
12:35 Can you tell me what you make?"
12:38 She worked for the airline and she told him what he made.
12:41 He said, "I will double it.
12:42 You pay your moving expenses if you'll move to," and he named the state where he wanted
12:47 her to work.
12:48 She goes, "You're kidding."
12:49 He goes, "No."
12:50 He handed her his card.
12:51 He goes, "I'm going on a hunting trip."
12:52 I think this was Wednesday or Thursday.
12:57 He goes, "Listen, today's Wednesday or Thursday.
13:01 Call me a week from Monday."
13:03 He goes, "Call me at this number."
13:05 Gives him his card.
13:06 He goes, "Only call me once.
13:08 Don't use that number multiple times unless I tell you, but call me on Monday."
13:12 He ended up hiring her.
13:13 We're on the plane and I'm like, "Did you even need anybody for that?"
13:18 He goes, "No."
13:19 He goes, "But you never, ever turned down a chance to hire really good people."
13:24 I'm like, "Well, how do you know she's really good?"
13:26 He shared with me a couple of things that she did for us that I just perceived as her
13:31 job.
13:32 He talked about how she did it, the way she talked to a fellow employee, the way she talked
13:37 to us as customers.
13:39 He goes, "Man, I really need her."
13:41 He only knew her five minutes, but he knew her.
13:46 To the best of my knowledge, we haven't talked about her, but I think she still works for
13:49 him and this was 10 years ago.
13:51 If she doesn't, I don't know.
13:55 The point was, he goes, "You never miss an opportunity to hire and accumulate great people.
13:59 You create positions for them."
14:02 I know an NFL team one time that selected a player they did not need, but he had dropped
14:08 in the draft because there were rumors of an injury.
14:14 My buddy, who was running an NFL franchise at the time, was getting ready to draft.
14:25 He told me, "I'm going to grab him."
14:28 Everybody thinks we won't because we don't need him.
14:33 Well, I'm grabbing him.
14:35 I'm like, "Why would you grab him?
14:37 You don't need him at all.
14:38 If I was a team behind you, I would think they're not picking him because he's a dude
14:44 and you never miss a chance to draft a dude."
14:47 For those of you that don't know, I've talked at length about what a dude is and you can
14:50 go back and find that.
14:51 In fact, I think I mentioned it even on yesterday's podcast.
14:54 You're always looking to upgrade.
14:57 I think if there's a way, and if you're going to hire Champ Kelly as your GM or one of these
15:03 other gentlemen, but you say, "Hey, here's a pool of guys for an assistant GM, or is
15:08 there another position that we can find available for them?"
15:11 They want them.
15:13 Here's the thing, you're getting into the danger zone.
15:17 If you're going to hire Champ, you don't say you've got to hire Dodds or you have to hire
15:21 Telesco, but you can say, "Hey, here's a pool of guys."
15:26 If you want to look at that, I think you have to let coaches hire their own staff, let GMs
15:30 hire their own staff.
15:32 You just have to.
15:34 In my opinion, I don't know of an organization that has been successful where it was dictated
15:44 on the coach who his staff's going to be or dictated on the GM who his staff's going to
15:49 be.
15:50 I've been in several organizations where owners have said, or presidents, "Hey, we like this
15:54 guy.
15:55 He's a good guy.
15:56 Do you think he fits with us?
15:57 Can we make room?"
15:58 Then the GM or manager looked at it, acquiesced and said, "Yeah, you're right.
16:01 That's a good guy.
16:02 Let's bring him in."
16:03 See, the other day I talked about esprit de corps, and I think some of you may have misunderstood
16:06 what I said.
16:08 It's a military term from the Marines, which means there's unity of purpose.
16:13 When you had John Gruden and Mike Mayock, or you had Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler,
16:20 it was esprit de corps because it was clear, "I'm the boss.
16:25 I'm the boss.
16:27 All right, do what you're told."
16:31 But esprit de corps is, "Okay, we know who the boss is, but we have an environment you
16:37 can disagree."
16:39 See, a general manager and a coach, and the general manager comes up and says, "I'm picking
16:44 this guy."
16:45 And the coach says, "I don't want him.
16:46 I've got a guy."
16:47 "Well, I'm taunting him."
16:48 All right, that happens a lot.
16:51 But you want a relationship where the general manager is the boss, and he comes up to the
16:54 coach and says, "Coach, listen, I know you love this guy."
16:58 And you may remember a few days ago, I told you about Hank Bulla.
17:02 He was the defensive coordinator when the Colts won the Super Bowl with Johnny Unitas,
17:07 and he was the Buffalo Bills head coach.
17:10 He was also the inventor of the NFL draft board.
17:14 And so he wanted to be able to judge a player and, "Can I upgrade?"
17:21 So let's say that you're a red 84, okay, now red represented defense, okay?
17:30 And an 84 is a very high number.
17:32 That's a starter in the NFL, according to the Hank Bulla board, okay?
17:36 Red 84.
17:37 But all of a sudden, here's a kid coming along out of college that is a red 80, red 82 with
17:46 a lot more upside.
17:48 He's going to be cheaper.
17:49 And this guy's year 10 in the league.
17:52 The rookie is a rookie with a chance to develop.
17:54 So you get to save money, get almost the same player, and one with a bigger ceiling, okay?
18:02 So the coach is like, "No, no, no, I don't want to do it.
18:04 I don't want to do it."
18:05 Why?
18:06 Well, we're friends.
18:07 We hunt.
18:08 Our wives are friends, whatever.
18:09 You can't have that.
18:11 But when you have a coach who can say to the general manager, "Listen, I agree with you,
18:17 but we're a year away, or maybe this is our year we think we can win the division."
18:21 If you put a rookie there, he doesn't know what he doesn't know, he's going to make rookie
18:25 mistakes.
18:26 And that position is so vital to us that I love the idea of picking them, but we don't
18:35 have a whole lot of depth behind them.
18:38 But the depth we have is signed to contracts we really can't get rid of.
18:42 And the general manager says, "All right, good point."
18:45 You want there to be able to be disagreement without being disagreeable.
18:49 That's esprit de corps.
18:51 Everybody's got to put their cards on the table, but then somebody has to be able to
18:54 make the decision.
18:56 That's not been the way in the Raiders as of late.
19:00 And so what I'm saying to you is, this is why you hire your general manager first.
19:06 He knows the vision, the macro vision of what he wants in the franchise.
19:13 Then he goes and hires a coach who can deliver it on a micro level.
19:16 Then you let the coach hire it.
19:17 Now, it doesn't mean a GM comes in and says, "Listen, I had experience with this guy.
19:20 He's a great offensive line coach."
19:23 And the coach says, "Oh, cool, I'll interview him.
19:25 But I already got a guy I really want, I believe in."
19:27 All right, general manager says, "Okay, cool, hire your guy."
19:33 But the coach would be smart enough to at least interview him.
19:37 And esprit de corps is, if your mind's open and you say, "Yeah, I think your guy's better,"
19:41 hire him.
19:43 That's esprit de corps.
19:44 We know that we already have that with Champ and with AP.
19:47 Champ's clearly the boss.
19:50 He's a general manager, but there's complete esprit de corps there.
19:53 And it doesn't mean dictatorship.
19:55 It means esprit de corps.
19:57 All right, now we're going to move on and talk about offensive coordinators.
20:04 I'm going to give you four names today that I know are of interest.
20:08 I think there's a couple more that I'm aware of.
20:10 I know there's three more that there is interest in, but I have not yet been able to confirm
20:19 the level of interest.
20:23 These four I'm going to give you today, and we're going to talk about them.
20:26 First is Edgar Bennett, tremendous coach on the Raiders.
20:32 This guy is a great coach, great coach, and incredibly well-respected.
20:41 He is a tremendous leader.
20:44 He is a tremendous football mind.
20:50 Not the same personality of a Patrick Graham, but he is very similar to Patrick.
20:58 And this is a guy that flies under the radar, was almost the interim coach.
21:01 It was down to him and AP.
21:04 Edgar is universally respected by everyone on the team, like AP was.
21:11 Players love him.
21:14 Players on both sides of the ball feel very comfortable coming to him, talking to him.
21:18 He is a leader.
21:19 He's a father figure.
21:21 He's a man of incredible integrity.
21:23 He knows NFL and NFL offense backwards, forwards, frontwards.
21:28 Whoever you hire, you won't hire one who knows the game any better than Edgar.
21:36 Tremendous man.
21:38 I don't think he's at the top of the list, but he's on the list and he's a legitimate
21:45 candidate.
21:47 So Edgar Bennett.
21:48 Number two, Eric Biennemi.
21:51 Now this one's not gotten any coverage.
21:53 I got this tip last night.
21:56 If he does not get a head coaching job, that's obviously his desire.
22:02 There is a massive potential that he's going to get a good look by the Raiders.
22:14 He is very well-respected.
22:15 He knows the Chiefs, which is the team that every day when the Raiders get up 365 days
22:22 a year, they have to have attention on the Chiefs.
22:26 You got to be the man, you got to beat the man.
22:27 And they're the man.
22:29 So he knows that franchise backwards, forwards, inwards and out.
22:33 If you look at when he left Kansas City, they lose Tyreek Hill, win a Super Bowl.
22:42 They lose Biennemi and the offense has really struggled.
22:45 Now let's not pretend like Andy Reid does not have a massive hand in the offense.
22:52 We all know he does.
22:54 Not saying that he doesn't, that would be disrespectful to you and it would be an insult
22:57 to your football acumen.
23:00 But the reality is he was a big part of it.
23:05 He goes to the commanders where his coach Ron Rivera did the unthinkable and threw him
23:11 under the roof.
23:12 If I had been the Washington commanders in leadership, the moment Ron Rivera did it,
23:17 I would have fired him right on the spot.
23:20 What a turd move.
23:24 He is a guy that fits AP.
23:26 He is an emotional, fired up guy, but he's also extremely demanding.
23:35 He helped Patrick Mahomes significantly in developing staying in the pocket, which is
23:41 really good.
23:45 He's very good with quarterbacks.
23:47 He's very good scheming.
23:50 Again, either one, Edgar or Eric, to me, are viable and very, very good candidates.
23:58 Would be happy with either one if I was Mark Davis.
24:00 Okay, next we're going to talk about Cliff Kingsbury.
24:07 You guys know he was a college coach and then he went to the Cardinals where the Cardinals
24:23 struggled with him.
24:26 Cliff Kingsbury struggled with him.
24:29 I'm going to have more on Cliff if he emerges as even more of a candidate.
24:36 I think there are some great concerns about him and just the discipline in his leadership.
24:46 I talked with a bunch of people who are very familiar with Cliff, some that played for
24:52 him in Arizona on the offensive side of the ball.
24:57 So I had one person tell me they really like him, a guy, but wasn't a whole lot of discipline
25:09 and they feel like the Cardinals left a lot of meat on the bone with that lack of discipline
25:16 that it really hurt them, really hurt them.
25:21 So that's fascinating to me.
25:29 Cliff knows the game, he played the game, he likes a spread wide open offense, which
25:36 okay, I'm not against that offense, but when you're AP and you want a running game, downhill,
25:44 physical, it's not a mesh.
25:46 Now perhaps Cliff says, listen, that's the style when I was a coach or a coordinator
25:52 that I ran, but I have the ability to run the offense you want.
25:56 I've been around it, I've coached it previously or been an assistant previously.
26:00 So there's a lot of options there.
26:02 Concerned about the discipline.
26:03 And when I say discipline, it's not like, you know, my son, Dexter, Ernest Wayne Carpenter
26:08 is 18 months.
26:09 I'm not talking about disciplining adult grown football players like their children.
26:15 I mean, AP is a disciplinarian, but you see the cigars in the locker room and the cheering
26:21 and the laughing and the having fun.
26:25 When I say discipline, it's just keeping it regimented, keeping the team focused, keeping
26:31 it centered.
26:32 You know, AP has that ability and you guys may remember this, I shared this previously,
26:38 to be a players coach, a lot of people have the perception, a players coach is, you know,
26:52 everybody gets to do what everybody wants because there's no discipline.
26:54 No, a players coach is the ability to love your guys, have fun, but still be the leader.
27:01 I would equate it this way.
27:03 I heard it said this way one time and I thought it was a brilliant analogy.
27:06 You know, you see parents who will go out drinking with their kids, okay, no leadership.
27:15 You know, they'll let their kids do whatever they want.
27:17 You know, you got a 12 year old kid smoking dope and out getting drunk and with their
27:21 parents, no direction.
27:24 Okay, but if your kid's 21, 25, 28, whatever, and you go out, nice Italian restaurant, have
27:32 a glass of wine and sit there and relax, it's not lack of discipline.
27:37 It's understanding that you have to make it fun, but there has to be, there's concerns
27:41 about the discipline nature of Cliff Kingsbury, not character issues.
27:48 So that's one, but again, he may have some coaching in his background that where he's
27:54 coached Smash Mouth football.
27:56 He may have a relationship with AP where AP can tell him what he wants and is confident.
28:00 Do I think he is an option at offensive coordinator?
28:03 Yes.
28:04 Do I think right now I would put him at the top of the list?
28:07 No.
28:08 And then the last one I want to talk about, and I want to make sure that I have his name
28:15 correct.
28:16 So give me a second here.
28:26 Zach Robinson, I was going to say Roberts.
28:28 I'm glad I checked.
28:29 Zach Robinson, he is the passing, sorry, I had to read the text to the person that was
28:32 texting me about him, passing game coordinator with the Rams.
28:39 He is a bright up and comer.
28:42 This guy is a bright up and comer.
28:44 I had a person who is very familiar with the Detroit Lions and very familiar with the Rams,
28:53 who is part of the Rams organization right now.
28:56 Tell me that.
28:57 Yeah.
28:58 That's terrific.
28:59 I'll just read it to you.
29:00 Zach's brilliant.
29:01 I love everything there is about Zach.
29:07 He has discipline like Sean, but he thinks outside the box on offense like Sean.
29:13 He's not a Sean disciple, but I would literally say to you, if I was starting a team today,
29:19 that would be my offensive coordinator.
29:21 I love him.
29:22 And that would really hurt us.
29:24 Here you go.
29:26 Zach Robinson.
29:28 And that's kind of the four main candidates.
29:31 Again, there are some others that I'm aware of, of interest.
29:34 I just have not been able yet to ascertain how big the interest is.
29:37 So there's no sense in naming them.
29:39 I know that they've asked permission to, let me just say this.
29:43 I was told that they've asked permission to interview Zach.
29:48 Cliff is unemployed.
29:49 I don't believe that they'll need permission there.
29:53 Remember, he was the Arizona coach and was fired.
29:56 He may have locked on with a team.
29:59 I don't know his contract situation.
30:02 Eric Biennemi is waiting to see if he's going to get a head coaching job with the commanders
30:08 or what's going to go on there.
30:09 He's still with the commanders.
30:10 So at some point they would have to ask permission.
30:13 I don't believe that they've done that yet.
30:15 And then Edgar's already on staff.
30:17 So there you go.
30:18 That is looking at the four offensive coordinators.
30:21 All four are extremely talented.
30:23 If I had to pick today, if somebody said to me, "Honda, you got to pick an offensive coordinator
30:27 today."
30:28 I really like Edgar Bennett a lot.
30:36 I like Eric Biennemi and I like Zach Robinson.
30:41 And so I don't, I luckily, I'm not, not luckily, I hate the word luck.
30:49 Unfortunately, I'm not making that pick, but I, if either one of those three, I don't
30:57 think you go wrong.
30:58 You know what you have in Edgar and you know your players really like them.
31:04 I think that's valuable.
31:05 But again, of the three that I'm aware of, two of them I'm very high on, very, very high
31:15 on.
31:16 But I like his AP, he's going to cast a wide net looking for something specific, looking
31:24 for something specific.
31:27 And one of them really like a lot of experience.
31:32 Y'all would love him.
31:34 So again, there's some great names here.
31:37 There's three names that again, I'm waiting to find out the potential.
31:44 But I'm telling you as somebody that's not a fan, but as an analyst and as analytic of
31:49 the team that cares about the team, and I do, at this point sitting here, I have zero
31:55 concerns about Raider offensive coordinator.
31:59 I like the direction that AP has cast his vision.
32:04 I like that.
32:05 Quick story.
32:07 So years ago, I am down and I'm fishing in Oklahoma.
32:14 And so we're down there fishing, having a great time.
32:18 And we're fishing an area where my buddy had caught numerous 10 pound plus largemouth bass,
32:27 numerous, using right lures, right equipment.
32:32 And we fished, I mean, two days hard, hard.
32:36 I would venture to say we probably fished close to 30 hours in two days.
32:43 I mean, we fish now, we were hard at it.
32:47 And we caught some fish, but none, nothing over 10 pounds, which is what I was looking
32:53 for.
32:54 And the point of the matter is, is sometimes you can be in the right area, have the right
33:00 equipment, the right equipment, and the fish just aren't biting.
33:07 So you know what, when you're looking for guys, looking for offensive coordinators,
33:12 you look in the right areas, you throw your baits in the right areas, throw your lures
33:15 in the right areas, you fish in the right spots.
33:18 Sometimes you don't always get it right.
33:19 All right, I got to let you go.
33:21 I greatly appreciate all of you.
33:23 I'm thankful for you.
33:24 Follow us on IG when you go to HondoSR on X, formerly known as Twitter @HondoCarpenter.
33:32 Go to si.com/NFL/Raiders for all your great articles.
33:37 We had 15 articles yesterday.
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33:40 Appreciate all of you.
33:41 We'll see you again tomorrow.