There are many reasons why the Las Vegas Raiders head coach-general manager duo of Pete Carroll and John Spytek work well together. And right at the top of the list is their desire to fill their football team with competitors above all else.
Earlier this week, Spytek joined Ari Meirov on his podcast, NFL Spotlight, in part to discuss exactly that.
“We don’t miss on the player; we miss on the person,” Spytek told Meirov when discussing past moves that didn’t exactly work out as his now-former Buccaneers team had hoped.
“We really believed in that. And we made that kind of the central piece of our scouting process. We were going to commit to the person. We were almost going to demand that the person we were selecting was a ‘Love it football’ person, that they were competitive as h*ll. That you almost had to, in a sense, k*ll them to get them off the field. The idea of put the football down, anywhere, we just want to play.”
That’s exactly the mindset Spytek brought to Sin City as general manager of Raiders. Pete Carroll wouldn’t have it any other way, either.
On Wednesday, Carroll Spoke to the media following the first open day of OTAs. He wasted no time whatsoever getting into the competitive side of Las Vegas’ football program.
John Spytek, Pete Carroll, and the competitive Las Vegas Raiders football team
“Before you ask me any questions, we’re in the middle of phase 3, now we finally got a chance where we’re working offense, defense,” Carroll opened up Wednesday’s post-practice press conference with.
“It’s taken us some time to get to this point. We’ve made a lot of good strides but now it’s obvious how important it is that we work against one another.
“The way we practice will make us, and we’re off to a really good start. Guys are having fun, we’re working hard and we’re learning a bunch every day.”
It’s easy to see why Pete Carroll demands such a competitive environment. That’s because he himself is just about as competitive as a person can be. So competitive, in fact, that he’s taken it upon himself to get on the field and compete with his players–even at the age of 73.
That’s another thing Sin City’s football coach spoke about on Wednesday.
“I feel like I gotta help pull everything I can from them every step of the way, every play that they take. And so, whatever I can do to add to that – I don’t always add to that, sometimes I get in the way, too – so, I’ve got to do a good, judicious job of pushing them, challenging them, pointing out the stuff that we need to get better at, and all of that on an ongoing basis.
“And I’m also trying to show our coaches how we coach and what’s expected of them. So, there’s a lot going on there.”
Competitiveness has been the theme of the Raiders since Carroll and Spytek both took over in late January. Expect that to continue being the case as the offseason program rolls right along.
*Top Photo: DJ Cabanlong/ The Sporting Tribune
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