The Raider Nation’s Anticipation: It Just Feels Different #raiders #raidernation #lasvegasraiders

The Raider Nation’s Anticipation: It Just Feels Different #raiders #raidernation #lasvegasraiders

everybody this is Hondao Carpenter your Las Vegas Raiders beat writer on SI and the host of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast it’s great to be with you happy Sunday we’re excited to be with you and you know what this means if it’s Sunday i’m joined by one of my favorite guys in all the world one of my very best friends he has joined me for many many many years he is a terrific and prolific writer at Men’s Journal the one and only the great Matt Hatic matt how are you
i’m doing well Honda always a pleasure to be on starting Sunday with you
it’s great to have you on Sun i can’t believe we are just a few weeks away from no more Sundays without football matt I got a lot I want to talk to you about today NFLwise we’re going to start and just put the hammer to the nail there is a ton of anticipation in Raider Nation right now and I can tell you if there is one constant over the many years I’ve covered this team it’s been inconsistency and I’m not one you’ve known me a long time i’m not really moved by feelings i’m not a feelings guy but it is undeniable this one feels different from Mark Davis to Tom Brady to John Spyc to Pete Carroll everything seems to be aligned above the players and then you go to the players they seem to all be in alignment you’ve got a a solid quarterback not claiming he’s a top five but you’ve got a solid quarterback you’ve got great coaching staff you got plenty of good players it feels different now maybe it feels different because I’m in the forest and so I’m coming to you as a guy outside the forest who looks at the NFL from a macro perspective does it feel different to you what are your thoughts
well I do think as I’ve said the process-wise seems a lot better this time around i think when you have people that have been winners uh at this level you know like a John Spitech and a Pete Carol and obviously Tom Brady and his his role uh as part owner and advising over the top you know what what he’s doing um and I think when you have you know an established quarterback now like a Gino Smith who I think is probably he’s not top five but he’s top 10 to 12 I think in the league so I think you have a guy who’s in the upper upper crust of the league so to speak um upper half at least you know for sure um which is a nice change of pace should help their offense i think that there are feelings of you know you definitely get some of that optimism cautious optimism for sure but I think people are actually looking like this could be sustainable this could be something that works as opposed to you know a quick fix or something that that seems like the sexy high or the sexy move uh but might not have all the substance behind it so I think that this does have a you know from an outside p perception to me it seems like this is something that that could be um you know more successful in the long haul than previous attempts were you know it’s funny for me because it you know this for a long time the Raiders were kind of seen as the team that would go for the flashy you know oh this is they would overpay for bigname veterans maybe at the downside of their career or maybe overpay guys who’d been with them a long time you can’t blame an owner for loyalty that’s so rare in pro sports but you know they go for Josh McDaniels who was the hottest coaching prospect at the time i mean that’s just the reality of the situation he was and I’ve never questioned their motive but you certainly could could question process and that just has not been the case this year and I’m going to ask you we’re talking the same issue but to me there’s a big thing missing here and that’s this i don’t think Mark Davis is getting enough credit and the the fact was he wasn’t groomed by his dad on how to take over the team like Stephven Jones is and he’s had to learn on the job and the fact that he continues he’s willing he’s proven i’ll put any amount of money into it i’ll do whatever I got to do i just want a winner for him to have gotten them here considering where he started where he walked in day one and really didn’t know what he was what he was up you know what what the process was going to be I think he deserves more credit than he’s getting is that fair I think that you have seen him evolve a little bit as an owner which is a good thing and I do think the number one prerequisite of a of a strong owner it doesn’t mean this is you’re going to be good if you have this but this is I think one of a thing that all good owners do have is a is you know an investment in the team on a personal level where they want to succeed they want to win that’s what comes first and foremost uh where they’ll spend you know the any amount of money they need to do to to make that happen and he will certainly do that i think the quickest way again obviously to to really get some of that respect is is if this starts to work and they you know they start winning some games and they look like a more competitive more steady competent uh organization I think you’re going to see some of that come in but I think for now he probably isn’t getting looked at you know the way that you’re saying because people are probably kind of lumping it all in with you know the start of his tenure and even the end of his dad’s tenure where the Raiders started to go downhill um but I do think the room is there with some of the strides he’s made some of the hires he’s made too uh for things to to really take off and for him to kind of get more uh props around the league so to speak all right i interesting story I came across this week and it was actually sent to me about Arch Manning really looking at Josh Allen and Joe Burrow as he develops his game now there’s no denying rightfully or wrongly there hasn’t been this much anticipation for a quarterback who still was in college to get to the pros since Trevor Lawrence i think that’s that’s pretty fair maybe you would disagree i think that but it’s anticip anticipatory and when you look at that a Manning looking at Joe Burrow and Josh Allen tells you Arch is not you know Archie uh Payton or Eli’s uh mini me no for sure i think it shows that he’s you know looking at the modern game and those are two guys who came in joe Burrow was the number one overall pick josh Allen was a top 10 pick um and they came in and and they had they’ve had success almost from the start um and I think that Josh Allen’s interesting because Arch brings that component of being a dual threat uh which neither of his uncles had his dad his grandfather did back in the 70s um with the Saints he could scramble and he he could make plays with his feet but Payton Eli were not runners um but Arch is so I think that’s where you see a guy like a Josh Allen where he might try to emulate that um and then Joe Burrow obviously success he had in college winning a national championship and then getting drafted number one overall going to a Super Bowl um I think those are two pretty good guys to to look up to uh I think I’m thinking on your comment I don’t know if there’s been a more anticipated prospect come you know I mean obviously I think there maybe the most hyped guy in college still might be Andrew Luck for his last year at Stanford because he when he came back uh and coming into the NFL the hype he had but we’d already seen him start and seen him do a lot of things and knew how good He was Arch we’ve only seen glimpses we saw him in certain packages for Texas he started a couple games last year when Quinn Eurs was hurt um there were a lot of calls to play him but they stuck by Quinn Eur so I mean we believe he’s going to be really good and we have every you know reason to think he has the tools to be awesome but we haven’t seen it yet so I think this anticipation is unlike something we’ve seen in a while at the college level it’s fascinating to me i want to go in a different direction here um because I think it’s very interesting i was talking to some people over the last couple of well not the last couple but in the last four or five days not the last one or two and I was talking to them about the expansion to 18 games and all of it and they said obviously it’s going to happen everyone knows that but they are anticipating a major war coming with the NFL and the NFL PA now there’s a 10-year deal I think that goes through 2030 um and so they weren’t sure that the the fight’s coming before 2030 it could but it’s coming it’s on the horizon and that’s the expansion of the roster in the salary cap if they’re going to keep adding games now it was a very fascinating conversation one person suggested just have the whole 53man roster able to dress on game day that was a suggestion I thought was a legitimate one another was get make the practice squad part of the roster expand the roster to 70 players i don’t think that I don’t think the NFL is going to go for that but that that’s a thought process another was expand it to 60 however that goes is not you and I’s case my question to you is there are there’s the sounds of war remember Churchill before when he was kind of thrown out but before World War II when he talked about the sounds of war there’s sounds of a growing war coming i What are your thoughts on this cuz I don’t I because it’s only 2025 and it’s 5 years away i don’t think the average fan is thinking this but I was told and I’m gonna I’m gonna read you because I wrote it down i think and this is somebody in the NFL there is a colossal war coming a dispensational shift big change i don’t think people outside the league realize it and inside it I don’t think a lot want to think about it that’s a big deal sure sure and I think when you look around what’s been going on the last few years obviously the talk about it expanding to 18 after they already expanded to 17 uh everyone pretty much knows that 18 is coming also expanding the international games teams are you know traveling more or you know you have uh seven eight games or so internationally this year and now they’re talking about you know is there a future where there’s almost a game every week internationally so you know that’s a strain on players and on teams um also you know different days of the week now you’re seeing games being played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays with Christmas or or certain holidays and and that’s you know we we saw some teams talk about that last year how that changed up their schedule so I think when you see these types of concessions being made with the schedule and all these different expansions I think the players are going to say “Wait a minute we want something in exchange for this.” Um whether it’s you know increased salary cap so salaries can be bumped up across the board whether it’s you know the rosters get expanded so you know guys can make a little bit more money that way and there’s also added protections in terms of if people get hurt there’s increased depth um I think there is going to be some type of the owners in the league are going to have to make some type of concessions I think to to get everything passed and everything copathetic because you know they’re asking for a lot of change or a lot of you know expansion a lot of growth um but the players are going to want a piece of that pie as well and some type of things on their side matt one of the things that both parties agree on right now both players and non-players is that the rules of training camp and engagement have kept the team significantly more healthier but they’ve also significantly hurt the game so let me give you a couple of examples and this is from players and non-players alike but having conversations again not in the last two days but prior to that and you know you’re seeing guys who don’t really hit in training camp anymore or you know for example quarterbacks never get hit unless it’s a preseason game whereas even a third string guy would have gotten hit a little bit but you’re seeing a lot because teams don’t want contact in practice or very minimal a lot of guys not going full 100 so then you get into into the season and teams have to have a few weeks to find their sea legs i’m okay with that so so don’t hear this as a complaint from me i think others are okay with it because it’s keeping players healthy for the regular season but here is my caveat do you feel there needs to be a tweaking here because it used to be there were three training camp practices a day which is stupid i’m not advocating for that now there’s not even really one a day cuz players are getting a bunch of days off and it’s it’s a lot less do you like it where it’s at and I’m going to be honest I think I can make an argument I like it where it’s at even though I do think it hurts the game early I like it where it’s at so I’m not advocating for more but the parties that I talked to again both sides are like I think sometimes fans expect the game to be really good earlier in the year and it’s not and and and it’s it’s got to find its sea legs i What do you think about this because I think it’s fascinating i think that you do notice a difference in quality of play after the first couple of weeks are done uh things pick up you’ll see you know quarterback play gets sharper tackling gets a little bit better at least just from the eye test standpoint uh operationally teams look much crisper after the first couple of games and I think that that is a result of the different preseason schedules um you know I think that they do lend to teams needing some time to find themselves in the early going of the regular season um I also think you see it is part partially one of the reasons for a difference in offensive line play and maybe the decline in offensive line play in a lot of cases because guys aren’t playing you don’t get as much time to work together in the offseason you don’t get as much time with pads on being you know physical and going through the fundamentals of line play that way uh having said that I don’t think it’s going back so I think that this is the way that it is and I think as fans and as writers and as you know anybody that enjoys football or takes it in
you have to kind of make peace with it or understand that the first couple of weeks of the season are not going to be you know the prettiest um obviously if you you hope that if that’s the K you know when I think that when you go into the season there you think if you’re a fan of a team that’s supposed to be a contender you’re hoping that you come out and look you know sharp enough where you can you know survive those first couple of weeks and you don’t suffer a bad loss but I also think if you’re a team fan of a team that’s not looked at as a contender it’s looked at as one of the weaker teams or a middle of the pack team you’re hoping you could steal a game or two maybe at that point because you know nobody’s really firing on all cylinders but listen I I’ve said this to you before i think even if they tweak the preseason again it’s not going back to the way it was you’re just not going to see teams play their starters at all really in the preseason i mean because here’s the thing if you’re you know if you’re the Chiefs you what do you gain about putting Patrick Mahomes out there at all in the preseason nothing you know or even even that’s the ex you know the top top example but you know if you’re you know if you’re the Washington Commanders why would you play Jaden Daniels this preseason you’re not going to do it um now listen if you are um the Titans yeah Cam Ward is gonna get some reps because he’s a rookie he’s going to be starting from day one you need him to play the Giants are going to play Jackson Dart shidor Sanders is going to play some for the Brown the rookies are going to get get time but anybody that’s an established veteran um unless they really want to get a couple of series in or it’s their choice or they’re really pushing for it they’re just not going to play and I think that that’s something we have to kind of get used to two more questions I’m going to let you go but I was talking to people last week about the NFL and what’s going on and about the 18 game they all said to me they think it’s going to go to two preseason games maybe one and but they one of the people a significant NFL person and I’m going to share with you privately who I was talking to but one of the people said something that blew my mind he said “We are approaching in the NFL where every game doesn’t count as much as others.” He said “And I’m concerned this is an NFL person I’m concerned we’re going to do what happened to baseball basketball and hockey.” And I asked him for an example he said “Pretty much every NFL stadium is packed every game because there’s so few and everyone matters.” so much and he goes “We’re getting to a place now we keep adding so many games.” Yeah it does this one doesn’t matter or yeah you know you you lose one early or you you sit a guy to rest an extra week whereas you would have played him before because each game and he said to me he goes “Hondo this may be good it may be bad i don’t know but there’s the rule of unintended consequences.” And he said “I’m concerned because we’re going to a new level.” I thought that was fascinating would love your thoughts it’s interesting i think if that happened it would all be about um the organization and and what where they are as a team um you know perhaps if a you know you if you’re a team like the Eagles or the Chiefs or or you know the Bills Ravens that are upper echelon and you get off to a good start you know you win your first four or five games maybe or or you’re five and one and a guy’s injured you may hold them out an extra week um they may do that now but especially with an extra game you may say okay we can afford to you know be a little more on the side of caution I don’t think we’re going to see load management to the degree that you see it in the NBA or MLB because there’s just still so few games i mean even with 18 games uh in the NFL you know the NBA has you know four and a half times that in the regular season uh baseball has almost 10 times that in the regular season so I think that you you even with the more physical nature of football you’re not worried about getting all the types of uh load management that you see in other sports but I do think it it it’ll be interesting to see if it alters the way teams approach uh you know how they they go about their rosters hey last one so again not the last couple days but earlier in the week we are with a friend of ours an NFL person and we were just talking about rookies and now remember he is not a Raider person i want to make that clear he does not work for the Raiders he said to me he goes “I think Ashen Ginti is going to be the rookie of the year.” And I’m like “What?” He goes “Oh yeah.” He goes “Pete’s going to run the football.” And he goes “He’s going to carry the rock.” And he goes “And that offensive line is not as bad as the way people dump on it.” And he goes “Hondo I’m telling you right now I think,” and he called him AJ Ashton Genty he goes “I think he’s going to be rookie of the year.” That blew my mind it was not a Raider i thought I’m asking Matt about that on Sunday what do you think of that i I think it’ll be a popular bet i think when you look around um because he is going to be a guy who is drafted into a situation or he’s going to get touches and be a focal point of the offense right away um I think when you look at the quarterbacks I mean yeah Cam Ward will is going to be regarded as a potential rookie to your guy especially starting from the outset
he’s not on a good team he’s not
He’s not on a great team like you said um and I don’t think he’s I like Cam War but I don’t think he’s going to have the impact that a Jaden Daniels did as a rookie
jaden to and to Cam’s credit Jaden went to a good team that didn’t have a quarterback
cam went to a bad team that doesn’t have a whole lot of anything
no it’s true and if you look at the other rookie quarterbacks um there’s going to be guys that play but I don’t think there’s going to be guys that start from day one maybe where they’re in a position to be in the running for rookie of the year uh I think Aston Janti is going to be one of the favorite bets for an offensive rookie of the year i think that there’s no reason why he shouldn’t put up some big numbers i mean we’re talking about a guy who as a rookie running back is coming in with the most hype and most acclaim since Saquon Barkley in 2018 uh who was offensive rookie of the year that year so I think that um the possibility of him putting up some big numbers is and winning that award is is definitely it’s not out of the realm at all i think it’s probably he’s probably the favorite to me and as a Giant you got to be excited about your boy Jackson Dart
he does i mean the thing with Jackson Dart is when you’re not expecting the Giants to have a great season but he does give you that added buzz where you’re like “Okay we’ll see what this kid has.” Um you know I think the Giants will obviously get into previews and stuff like that later in the summer but I think their best bet is to maybe stay competitive for a little bit with Russell Wilson and then when season starts to slip away you throw in Jackson Dart and hopefully he shows you some things all right so next week Matt and I are going to begin previewing all of the different divisions so next week we’ll start Matt let’s just go NFC East obviously we’ll have some Raider talk but we’re going to also talk NFC East we’re going to go through all the divisions and I’m excited about it i hope that sounds good to you
can’t wait remember everybody you can find me on Twitter at Hondo Carpenter on IG and threads at hondos and always at si.comnflraers for your very best Raider content matt would you tell them where to find you on social media please sure you can find me at uh on x Twitter matteladic919 mat hla d i k919 um and you can find most of my you know my writings over at Men’s Journal so come chat and say hello
check it out everybody we’ll see you again tomorrow

The Raider Nation’s Anticipation: It Just Feels Different #raiders #raidernation #lasvegasraiders