The Las Vegas Raiders went through some major cultural changes this offseason. By “cultural,” we’re referring to bringing in a new regime with heavy New England Patriots roots. Peter Schrager of Good Morning Football recently shared some thoughts on how that is all going.
“There was this great fear that it was going to be Patriots Southwest when you bring in all these Patriots people. Like it was suddenly going to be another [Bill] Belichick thing and what I’m hearing, is that it’s not that. Josh [McDaniels] is putting his own spin on it.”
Schrager went on to also speak about how the Raiders’ new head coach has been approaching training camp and the preseason. As most will recall, fans were surprised to see Josh Jacobs get playing time early on during last week’s preseason opener. Or maybe it’s his approach to the offensive line: giving players a chance to compete and experimenting with different lineups to make the most of what he has to work with.
The Raiders are taking some influence from one of the best teams in NFL history
“Yes, it’s a New England influence. But I don’t think it’s the Patriots Southwest. I don’t think it’s going to be an offensive team that throws the ball a bunch and gives up a bunch of points. I think that defense is going to be solid too.”
So far from what we’ve all gathered this far into camp and preseason, the Raiders offense will be a different beast in 2022. The play calling and design is miles ahead of the predictable offense that Jon Gruden and Greg Olson ran for years. To Schrager’s comment about the defense, this year’s unit is looking much sharper already under Patrick Graham, and it’ll likely no longer be the Achilles’ heel of the Silver and Black. A weakness that appears to be finally on its way to being corrected. At the end of the day, the old way of doing things wasn’t working. Taking some concepts from the winningest NFL franchise was never a bad thing.
[pickup_prop id=”21986″]
*Top Photo: Heidi Fang/Las Vegas Review-Journal