The Las Vegas Raiders have their training camp in full swing right now. Among the players that have a magnifying glass on them are this year’s rookies. Running back Kenyan Drake was one of the veterans to recently heap praise on some of the youngsters.
When asked about Zamir White and Dylan Parham, Drake responded in kind by recognizing their desire to absorb everything they can during training camp.
“Yeah, man, they want to soak up knowledge. And that’s all you can do at this time because everything is going real fast right now. I try to just push a lot of positive energy onto them because, at the end of the day, you are going to make mistakes.”
Kenyan Drake offers positive reinforcement to the Raiders’ rookies
Drake makes a solid point that, with camp underway, everything is going by relatively quickly. In fact, the Raiders are now just days away from their first preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Obviously, it goes without saying that players such as White, Parham, and the other rookies are going to make mistakes. It bodes well for this young core that players such as Drake are doing their best to bring them along.
“So, positive reinforcement, and constructive criticism when needed. Coach is going to do it, but we all kind of coach ourselves, especially in the running back room. So, I just want to make sure they continue to be accountable for what they do good, what they don’t do good, learn from their mistakes, and the next day come out and continue to strive for greatness.”
When playing on an offensive line that will require a degree of versatility, Parham will inherently make mistakes. The growing pains are unavoidable, but as Drake points out, you take your losses and keep moving forward.
One thing that did stand out about Drake’s comments was his reference to the running back room. White is injured and, so far, has missed most of training camp. The organization decided to sign Austin Walker to help mitigate White’s absence. To that point, as the group adjusts and keeps chugging along, next man up, Raiders fans can take solace knowing that these running backs hold themselves accountable.
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*Top Photo: DraftKings Nation