Welcome to this week’s Raiders news roundup. It was a slow week as far as developments as teams are getting ready for free agency and the draft. Nevertheless, there are some things worth talking about.
This week, the Raiders official website posted an interview with general manager Mike Mayock, who talked a little bit about the team and the offseason.
Mayock implies QB Carr stays
In the interview, Mayock talks about the East-West game, this past years rookie class and Raiders guard Richie Incognito. They all were nice, but I would have really loved to hear the general manager share some anecdotes about his interactions with the players, head coach Jon Gruden and owner Mark Davis. As the general manager, Mayock has an insight and view of the team no one else does. This is a man who once got pissed because an orangutan announced a draft pick. I would love to see his organic interactions with the organization despite the fact that is reserved for Hard Knocks and All or Nothing, which the team might be fed up with after being the stars of the HBO show last offseason.
Something I found interesting was Mayock’s assessment of quarterback Derek Carr:
I think we’ve got a good offensive line and what we have to do is a better job of supporting him with some more wide receiver talent, the ability to catch the football, uh, the ability to spread the ball around a little bit. You know, Derek handled everything Jon threw at him mentally. I thought he progressed at a rapid rate in year two in Jon’s system.
That’s far from “Derek Carr will be our quarterback”, but reassuring enough to know the veteran will likely stay with the team. The fact Mayock talks about the importance of giving Carr weapons in present tense may imply that it’s a given the quarterback is going to be the starter in 2020.
In other news, Roger Goddell talked about the Raiders and their impact in Las Vegas this week. It was a bit bland as the NFL Commissioner just had some general talking points, but I liked how the NFL commissioner portrays Davis in a positive light, a passionate owner who wants the team to win instead of a goofball that lacks self-awareness media seems to make fun of.
Here at the Ramble
We continued our current series: Year in Review, which will have covered pretty much every single player who took a snap with the team this past season. This week, we took a look at Daryl Worley, Clelin Ferrell, and Kolton Miller.
Likewise, Ben Congan’s Moving up or moving on? series analizes what special team players may stay with the Raiders and who will be gone. Also, he looks through the offensive line, and claims the tight ends corps is a strength.
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