Podcast: Raiders Joint Practice #1 with Rams Report
In this episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast, I give you a full report of everything that happened at joint practice #1 with the Los Angeles Rams.
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00:00 Hi everybody, this is Hondo Carpenter out here in Thousand Oaks for the Las Vegas Raiders
00:08 and the Los Angeles Rams.
00:11 Joint practices, practice has been over a little bit.
00:14 I wanted to work the phones, talk to a couple people, get some analysis, excuse me, on a
00:21 couple things that I thought I saw, but I did not want to present it to you until I
00:29 was just, I wanted to get some confirmation on some things I saw.
00:34 This is going to be a very in-depth podcast.
00:38 It was a very valuable, a very valuable joint practice.
00:48 The Raiders, well I'll get more into that with you today.
00:52 Secondly, I saw something that I wasn't expecting to see, but is gigantic, and I think it is
01:02 going to set a message for what we're going to look for tomorrow.
01:06 So I thought it was just, it was an outstanding practice.
01:10 I think it was outstanding for both teams.
01:13 I don't think anything last week good came out of it for San Francisco.
01:18 I do think some things came out good for both teams today.
01:21 So let's start by talking about some particular players, talk about some particular things
01:26 I saw that stood out to me, and then I want to end it with the gigantic thing that I saw
01:33 that I think all of Raider Nation can be super encouraged by.
01:41 It was something that in my four years of covering the Raiders I've never seen, and
01:45 it's another step down the road of building a foundation for a championship program.
01:53 First let's talk about Jimmy Garoppolo.
01:55 I thought Jimmy had a good day.
01:57 I don't think he had a great day, but I think he had a very good day.
02:02 He connected with Philip Dorsett on a long touchdown.
02:05 There was over 70 yards.
02:07 Brian Hoyer had a big one to Philip Dorsett.
02:10 He caught it, and eventually when he went to the ground he was down for a little bit,
02:15 but he was up.
02:16 He got back up.
02:18 Jimmy Garoppolo again thought he had a good day.
02:20 I give him a solid B-.
02:23 I thought Brian Hoyer had a really good day.
02:25 Gave him a B-.
02:27 And I thought Aiden O'Connell had a really good day.
02:32 I'd give him a C+.
02:34 So I thought the Raider quarterbacks all did well.
02:37 Philip Dorsett looked extremely good.
02:41 Jacoby Myers, well, y'all know what Jacoby.
02:45 How do I want to word this?
02:50 He's had a great camp, so I don't have any expectations of Jacoby now.
02:54 We know we're going to get...
02:57 But I want to talk about Devante.
02:58 Now I had told you that he was fine, but we wouldn't see him in any of the 11 on 11s in
03:10 joint practices.
03:11 We're not going to see him in any games.
03:13 We're not going to see him in any games.
03:15 But he played today because he wanted to.
03:19 He was fine, but he wanted to.
03:22 And he went in there and talked to his coaches and he made it abundantly clear.
03:27 They were ready to just say, "Hey, take a seat and relax.
03:30 You don't have to get in the 11 on 11 drills."
03:33 Nope.
03:34 He wanted nothing to do with that.
03:35 He's a straight baller.
03:36 He's a football player.
03:37 He wanted it and he got it.
03:39 And he's Devante.
03:40 No one can cover him.
03:42 No one on the Raiders can cover him.
03:44 No one on San Francisco could cover him.
03:46 And no one on the Rams today could cover him.
03:48 He does whatever he wants.
03:49 In fact, today they're on two separate fields.
03:54 And I tried to stay in as close as I could in the middle so I could watch a plan defense,
03:58 watch a plan offense.
04:00 Because when Max Crosby is on one field and Devante Adams is on the other, neither one
04:04 of them can be...
04:07 Both of them do whatever they want to do.
04:08 We'll talk more about Max in a minute.
04:10 But I wanted to talk about that.
04:12 Next I want to talk about Tyree Wilson.
04:13 You may have saw my tweet this morning, taken off the pub list.
04:17 He was back.
04:18 He was in practice today.
04:19 You can go to Twitter and check out my account @HondoCarpenter, H-O-N-D-O-C-A-R-P-E-N-T-E-R.
04:27 And I put, I think, seven videos up today.
04:29 Not all of them of Tyree, but you'll see a lot of Tyree.
04:32 By the way, I should probably welcome you to the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast.
04:38 As part of Sports Illustrated's FAN Nation, thanks for being with us.
04:40 I'm so sorry.
04:41 What kind of a host am I?
04:43 I just literally didn't even welcome you.
04:45 But thank you everybody for being here.
04:47 Don't forget to subscribe buttons.
04:49 Get on there, subscribe.
04:50 We're going to keep this going.
04:51 So those two are so good that no one blocks them or no one stops them.
04:59 I mean, Devante, you guys have heard me say this before.
05:04 If Devante's out there, he's got to be your first choice.
05:09 Now I want to talk about today, because I watched really close.
05:12 They worked red zone a lot.
05:15 And the Raiders defensive line, by the way, let's just go there first.
05:18 The Raiders defensive line was good all day.
05:21 Just good all day.
05:22 Every one of them was good.
05:23 I didn't see one guy that I thought, "No, that wasn't real good."
05:25 No, they were all good.
05:26 I'm going to get into some specifics in a minute.
05:29 But if you look at the San Francisco success and the Raiders success, Raiders won it.
05:37 I think they had better red zone, but it was not perfect at all.
05:42 But I also want to address this because I heard some media on the sidelines, particularly
05:45 one national media member talking about the Raiders red zone, not looking good or being,
05:52 I don't remember if he called it vanilla or boring.
05:55 But the problem is, is that they were not going to show anything new on film and they
06:02 weren't going to show it with people there.
06:04 The Raiders were very boring or vanilla or whatever the word the guy used.
06:09 It's because they weren't going to show it.
06:11 They wanted to get red zone work and they did.
06:14 But they were very vanilla.
06:16 I would have not used the term boring.
06:18 I would have used vanilla.
06:20 Very, very vanilla.
06:22 And still had more success than the Rams.
06:25 So that was interesting to me.
06:28 Matt Stafford looked really good, especially on outside corners, terrifically good on the
06:33 outside corners.
06:34 But the problem was, is the Raider defense, defensive line had pressure.
06:40 There were several times, there were, I don't remember now if it was four or five times
06:47 where Max had a sack, but obviously he's not hitting Matt Stafford and three or four of
06:53 those Matt, after Max was right there, just stepped up and threw the ball.
06:57 So you can count that as some success, because technically he did throw it and technically
07:02 it was caught, but if he would have been able to get hit, it would have been a sack.
07:08 So again, I thought in the red zone, the Raiders were better.
07:12 One-on-one drills, I thought the Raiders were better.
07:15 Now, kind of like the first San Francisco, it was not a dominant, it was by the defensive
07:22 line.
07:23 It was by Max, obviously he's on the D line and it was by Devante, Philip Dorsett.
07:28 But that's not to say that the Rams didn't get their victory.
07:33 Quite frankly, after one practice, I think the Rams look a lot better than San Francisco,
07:38 but that's another story for another day.
07:41 Anyways, there were some things I wanted to talk about and get to.
07:45 Dylan Parham was held out.
07:49 So was Nate Hobbs and Chandler Jones.
07:51 There were some others, but I specifically want to talk about those three.
07:54 None of them were there.
07:56 So the Raiders didn't have their starting defensive line.
07:59 They didn't have one of their starting corners and they didn't have one of their starting
08:04 offensive linemen.
08:07 So I think that's important.
08:08 Now, Aaron Donald was there, but didn't play.
08:11 He's one of the best ever, not just now, but ever for the Rams.
08:17 But I think those are no, there were other guys out, but like Tyree Wilson didn't do
08:20 any of the major reps.
08:23 He was out there on the field.
08:25 He was doing some one-on-ones and some other stuff, but you know, and you expect that.
08:29 I laugh because I told everybody that he would be back.
08:33 And then I tweeted out, or I wrote in a story or I said in a podcast, I don't remember now,
08:41 that he even jogged a little on Sunday at the game.
08:43 People, no, he didn't.
08:44 He was limping.
08:45 Yes, he did.
08:46 I watched him with my own eyes and he wasn't limping.
08:53 So anyways, but he was there and it looked good.
08:56 You know, again, no flashes.
08:59 It's just working with his teammates, but he certainly looked very good.
09:05 I mean, when I say that, you say, how does it look good when it's just him and his teammates?
09:09 I mean, physically he's a specimen.
09:14 He's a specimen.
09:15 I mean, he clearly has muscles and big, so I'm not trying to imply that he's underweight,
09:23 but he looks like a safety.
09:28 I'll give you a great example.
09:29 And a lot of you are too young to remember this, but when Jimmy Johnson rose up from
09:34 the ranks, most people don't know he was at Oklahoma State.
09:37 And what he did is he was really the first coach to embrace speed.
09:44 And so he didn't have traditional defensive lines.
09:48 He would take big linebackers and make them linemen.
09:52 So if you were a big defensive end, you became a tackle.
09:56 If you were a big linebacker, you became a defensive end.
09:59 If you were a big safety, you became a linebacker.
10:03 If you were a big corner, you became a safety.
10:05 And then, you know, corners were corners.
10:09 And Jimmy, that's how he got the job at Miami, Miami, Miami, Florida.
10:17 He goes to the Hurricanes and does an amazing job there.
10:20 Then he goes to Dallas, does the same thing.
10:23 Speed, speed, speed.
10:25 Listen, Tyree is everything you want in a defensive end.
10:29 But he looks like a big safety or a big linebacker.
10:34 I mean, he's spelled.
10:36 He looks like a piece of granite.
10:38 So when I say he looked good, it isn't like he flashed against a Colton Miller.
10:42 I don't mean it that way.
10:43 He just looks the parties in great shape.
10:46 And he visibly brought energy to his team.
10:49 They were all excited to see the rook out there.
10:53 And in fact, at one point, I think it was Max Crosby's like, where's the rook?
10:57 Where's the rook?
10:57 So it was good to have him out there and to see him.
11:00 Now, I want to talk about Jacoby Myers for a minute,
11:06 because I keep telling you how great of a camp he's having.
11:11 So they're doing some seven on seven drills today and some one on ones.
11:15 And I've always respected Jacoby as a great receiver and a great guy,
11:19 by the way.
11:20 And he went up in the air like a ballerina,
11:27 but kept his feet on the ground.
11:29 It was like a body movement.
11:31 So he got the defensive back to twist.
11:34 And then he turned his body and then used his butt like a big center.
11:41 I don't know how--
11:41 I know most of you are not this old to remember.
11:44 But one of the things that made Dennis Rodman a great rebounder
11:50 was he had the ability to use his butt to move people, which you're not
11:54 going to get called for a foul for.
11:57 And he has that ability, Jacoby Myers, to use his butt as a weapon
12:05 and to just push guys.
12:06 So he gets a receiver off.
12:08 Then he turns his body, uses his butt, just knocks the receiver down.
12:12 I mean, today, there were two particular plays where I was just in, like, wow.
12:19 And he's special.
12:21 And when you got a Devontae and you're WR2,
12:26 it would be a WR1 on just about any other team.
12:30 That tells you how special he is.
12:33 Now, it is fun to watch the Rams stop to watch a Max Crosby and a Devontae.
12:41 That's pretty cool.
12:42 They have a lot of respect for him, and they should.
12:44 Now, I want to talk about Matthew Stafford for a minute.
12:50 I know he's not a Raider, but he had a good day.
12:53 But he's a great quarterback.
12:55 And I've always-- now, in the interest of fair disclosure, I know Matt.
12:58 I respect him a lot.
13:01 So I'm not saying that to be braggadocious.
13:05 I'm just saying because you may choose not to take all of my opinion, which
13:11 is fine, because I admit that I know him and I like him.
13:15 But Matthew, just the way he looked and the way he would look guys off
13:21 and throw the ball the other place and hit the outsides,
13:24 he was very impressive today.
13:26 But again, they still didn't have a ton of success
13:32 because of the defensive line.
13:34 So when's the last time you had a quarterback that maybe was eating alive
13:38 the Raiders defensive backs on the outside?
13:41 But if it was a game, he would have been neutralized a little bit because
13:46 of the play of the defensive line.
13:48 So again, you may remember I talked to you about being analytical.
13:52 That's where my being analytical comes into play.
13:56 I want to talk about Sam Webb because this kid, you know I had him.
14:03 I projected 53 coming into camp.
14:08 I don't know that he's going to be on there when I do my last projected
14:13 before the team releases theirs.
14:15 I think his job is certainly in jeopardy.
14:19 But he just keeps making plays.
14:22 So there was another one today where a ball gets tipped.
14:25 Now, Sam shouldn't have made a play.
14:30 But somehow, some way, he was able to twist his body.
14:36 I mean, twist it like a gymnast.
14:40 Set his feet and take two steps of acceleration and get the ball.
14:46 It's just one of those athletic plays that I know the coaches,
14:50 it's going to stand out when they go and they look at it.
14:55 They're going to be like, wow.
14:57 And they should.
14:59 And so, man, the kid is a scrapper.
15:02 And if he doesn't make the roster, they're
15:05 going to have to protect him and keep him.
15:07 But that young man, I was very impressed with two plays today.
15:12 And both of them, one of them, like the interception,
15:17 I mean, that was phenomenal.
15:19 And then another was another play that he
15:21 had where his body was out of position a little bit.
15:24 But he was able to correct it and make the play.
15:28 And I thought it was very fascinating to watch.
15:30 Another guy I've got to talk to you about, Jordan Willis.
15:37 I mean, you guys know, I interviewed him the other day
15:41 in the locker room after the game.
15:44 He had some plays where he was relentless
15:47 and forced the quarterback to do some things in the ball game
15:50 that he didn't want to do that are never going
15:53 to show up in the stat sheet.
15:55 But there was one today where he was relentless.
15:58 He forces a fumble on the quarterback,
16:02 and the Raiders get the ball.
16:04 And I'm just telling you, he's one of those guys.
16:07 Now, when you look at him, the Raiders
16:09 are going to probably carry four defensive ends, maybe five,
16:12 but four probably.
16:14 You know Max Chandler and Tyree are in.
16:18 So is Malcolm competing, Koontz, with him?
16:23 Would they keep them both?
16:25 I just don't think they would keep them both.
16:27 They might, though.
16:28 I mean, I'm not saying officially they won't.
16:30 I don't believe that they've made any decisions yet.
16:34 In fact, I talked to Josh McDaniels today
16:36 about guys in the bubble.
16:40 And he goes, well, you know, we really don't have a bubble.
16:43 Well, and he didn't lie.
16:45 But OK, we know Chandler, Tyree, and Max are going to make it.
16:50 So if you're taking four DEs, then you
16:54 know that somebody is on the bubble,
16:56 because you got more than that.
16:57 You got more than one left.
17:00 I know what he meant, but I'm just putting it
17:02 a little bit in perspective.
17:03 By the way, I apologize again.
17:05 I'm not shaving, but I want to get this information out
17:07 to you right away, so forgive me, please.
17:11 But I thought Jordan Willis, again,
17:12 just he just keeps making relentless plays.
17:16 He does not take a playoff.
17:18 And I told you the defensive line all looked pretty good,
17:22 and they did.
17:24 But he really stood out with that.
17:25 Next, I want to talk to you about turnovers.
17:29 Now, the Raiders did not get as many turnovers today
17:34 as they've wanted and as they have in joint practices
17:37 against the Niners.
17:41 But they still got turnovers.
17:43 It wasn't like they're--
17:44 I think I had them at three or four.
17:47 Three or four, when you count fumbles, that I saw.
17:52 But there's also a couple of reasons for that.
17:55 Number one, Matthew Stafford's better than any quarterback
17:58 on the 49ers.
18:00 Now, Stetson Bennett had a couple of interceptions.
18:05 I think you could see in that kid,
18:06 he's got a little bit of flash, and he should have.
18:08 He's a two-time national championship
18:09 with the Georgia Bulldogs.
18:11 But I think he's got a good future.
18:14 But I don't think he looked as good as Aidan O'Connell.
18:17 I don't even think it was close.
18:19 But still, I think that's a big reason.
18:25 Second of all, there was some of them more vanilla today.
18:30 You could tell they wanted to work on base.
18:33 So maybe there wasn't as many adjustments.
18:37 And again, they don't game plan, per se.
18:39 But they are different teams, so they're
18:41 going to work on different packages.
18:43 But it's not like they script and game plan.
18:46 They know that San Francisco runs more up-tempo,
18:50 on offense.
18:51 So they're going to work on that with their defense.
18:53 But they're not game planning.
18:55 So I think that was a big deal.
18:58 But there still were turnovers.
19:00 Now, I've got to get to what was gigantic to me.
19:05 I have been preaching--
19:08 well, let's be fair.
19:08 Josh McDaniels, since he and Dave Ziegler arrived,
19:11 has been preaching consistency.
19:16 And I've been preaching that we're seeing it
19:18 since the season ended.
19:21 And overall, I told you last week in the first practice
19:26 that San Francisco, that the Raiders won it.
19:30 And if I had to describe it, it would be a 17-14 game.
19:37 I thought the Raiders won today as well.
19:40 They came out in one-on-ones and looked OK.
19:45 They won it.
19:45 But it was not a blowout or a domination at all.
19:49 Then Max Crosby and other veterans
19:51 begin to really get loud.
19:53 And I talked with Max about it.
19:55 I'll put that video up later.
19:59 And he said something that clicked in me.
20:03 We have a standard here.
20:05 Now, I want you to hear me, because in four years
20:08 of covering the Raiders, I've never seen this.
20:10 I've seen them get leads and blow them.
20:15 I've seen them get leads, and the other team comes back,
20:17 and they eke out a victory.
20:21 But they have come in off a great training camp.
20:25 And they were winning.
20:26 And remember, I talked to you ad nauseum
20:32 about how the Raiders in the past
20:34 have played up or down to their competition.
20:38 And Max and his teammates begin to--
20:41 this is unacceptable.
20:42 I'm not going to say some things that
20:44 were said, because I know a lot of kids and other people
20:48 watch this, and I want to be respectful of that.
20:51 But let's just say they made it clear to their teammates,
20:57 you're not playing to the blankety-blank system.
21:00 Don't bring that blank out on this field.
21:03 Now, in the past, when the Raiders were winning,
21:05 the mentality was, OK, we're winning.
21:10 Today-- and this was gigantic, and it wasn't just Max--
21:14 you saw leaders on this team.
21:18 This isn't good enough.
21:22 They could have said, hey, we're winning.
21:24 Good job.
21:24 No, this isn't good enough.
21:26 We're better than this.
21:28 And the Raiders came out and won the practice.
21:31 Now, I would have said today was a 24-21 win.
21:40 But for you people that have a memory at all,
21:44 when's the last time you saw a Raider team get angry when
21:49 they were winning and not playing good enough?
21:54 That's a big deal.
21:56 That's gigantic.
21:58 That is a team that's recognizing we have a standard.
22:03 We're not meeting it.
22:05 That's where championship teams-- and I told you guys
22:09 coming in, I'm looking for consistency.
22:13 What I saw today was huge.
22:16 You saw a team that winning but not playing their best
22:22 was unhappy.
22:24 Now, I want to go back, because if you
22:26 didn't see my couple of podcasts talking about this week,
22:30 you can go back and watch them.
22:31 But if you saw them, you're going to remember this.
22:34 I discussed with you the Raiders weren't playing the Rams.
22:38 The Raiders were playing the Raiders.
22:40 They have consistently played down or up
22:43 to the level of their competition.
22:45 And I told you the Rams on paper were not
22:48 as good as San Francisco, although today they
22:50 look much better.
22:52 And on a day when the Raiders were not at the level
22:56 that they have consistently maintained all offseason
23:00 and they were winning, it wasn't, well, it's OK.
23:02 We're winning.
23:04 It was, we're not good enough.
23:08 We're playing ourselves.
23:10 And then they bounced back.
23:12 And again, 24-21, 24-20, they won it.
23:19 But first of all, hats off to the Rams,
23:21 because they came to play today.
23:24 But hats off to the Raiders, because they
23:29 came in to play today too, but they weren't playing the Rams.
23:33 They were playing their own expectations.
23:36 They were playing the standard that they've already set.
23:41 And they didn't like how people played it.
23:44 And they held themselves to it.
23:47 And they got better.
23:49 I would encourage you to go watch all the interviews I'm
23:51 going to put up from players today,
23:54 because it was very evident and very clear.
23:57 They weren't happy.
24:00 And if you're a Raider fan, their unhappiness
24:06 should make you tonight go out and celebrate
24:09 with an extra pizza or an extra hamburger or an extra root
24:13 beer, whatever it is that you want.
24:16 That should matter to you.
24:19 That should stick out to you.
24:21 Because tonight, your Raiders held themselves to a standard
24:27 and rose back up to it.
24:28 Now, real quick, what am I looking for tomorrow?
24:30 I'm going to be looking for some certain things.
24:32 I want to see them come out with that intensity
24:34 that they finished with at the end.
24:36 And I think we're going to.
24:37 I think the Rams peaked.
24:40 And again, they look good.
24:43 But I think the Raiders didn't for full practice.
24:46 I fully expect to see that tomorrow.
24:47 Fully expected.
24:49 I think tomorrow, the Raiders are
24:51 going to come out angry, hostile, mobile, and agile.
24:55 And they're going to play that way.
24:56 And so again, a lot of good from this practice.
24:59 A lot of things that weren't good.
25:01 And again, I mentioned some of the outside corners.
25:06 And that was a big deal.
25:07 But several times, the Raiders D probably would have had a sack.
25:14 So I'm not as concerned as maybe some others
25:16 are just because I thought the offensive line did OK today
25:20 for the Raiders.
25:21 So there wasn't a lot of plays that you think, gee,
25:24 I wonder if that was live, if the quarterback would
25:27 have got rid of it.
25:28 But there were several with the Rams.
25:30 And so that's going to be really interesting to see.
25:32 I'm going to be watching that really closely.
25:34 Just going to continue to watch maturation.
25:37 We saw some guys get a few reps, Hunter and others.
25:42 But I'm going to be looking for that kind of stuff.
25:44 That's where my eyes are going to be tomorrow.
25:45 But again, the gigantic takeaway is the Raiders were winning
25:50 and were pissed because they weren't
25:52 playing to their standards.
25:54 And Raider Nation, that spells consistency.
25:57 Now, it still is only August.
25:59 They haven't played a second preseason game.
26:01 But you win consistency one day at a time.
26:05 And today, they won it again.
26:07 And I think that's the story here in California.
26:11 And so again, thank you for listening.
26:13 I'm Hondo Carpenter.
26:14 So many of you are subscribing, sharing, and enjoying
26:18 the podcast.
26:19 Just want you to know how much I appreciate you.
26:21 And also, just want you to know, I
26:24 know you have a lot of places you can go for information.
26:27 Thank you for choosing to come here.
26:28 So I'm Hondo Carpenter from Sports Illustrated's Fan
26:32 Nation, the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast, part
26:34 of the Fans First Sports Network.
26:36 Thank you for listening today.
26:37 We'll have plenty more analysis for you tomorrow
26:40 from the second practice.
26:41 And then don't forget on Friday, our podcast
26:45 will be What to Look For in Saturday's Game.
26:47 Thanks, everybody, for watching.
26:49 Hope you enjoyed it.
26:50 Consistency was the name of the game.
26:53 And you got it out of your silver and black today.
26:55 See you tomorrow.
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