HENDERSON, Nev. — The chances to make a positive impression are dwindling.
For the Las Vegas Raiders, some hard decisions are coming as to who makes the opening day 53-man roster. Some pretty good football players are going to be looking for work and even if you think you’re safe, you may not be for long as general manager John Spytek could pluck someone off the waiver wire next week and suddenly your job could be in jeopardy.
Head coach Pete Carroll has been stressing the importance of competition since training camp began last month. There’s Saturday’s final preseason game in Glendale against the Cardinals to make a positive impression. But there are the daily practices and meetings that a player gets evaluated on. Carroll and his staff are watching everything. How well do you know the playbook? What is your energy level? Are you paying attention in the position meetings? Are you a high maintenance individual or are you easy to coach and work with?
There’s a lot more than goes into this process than game day performance. And that’s what makes things difficult for Spytek, Carrol and the coaching staff. When they meet after the game Saturday to discuss who stays and who goes, you can expect some heartfelt discussions. In some cases, it could get a bit heated as an assistant may feel strongly about an individual while Carroll and/or Spytek may have a different opinion.
But one thing we know about Carroll. He is a good listener. He’s going to trust not only his own eyes but his ears as well. He’ll value the opinions of his staff and whatever decisions are made, they’ll be made together.
“No, I haven’t found in all of the times we’ve had to face that, I haven’t found really the right way to do it other than just tell them exactly what you feel,” he said when asked about how hard it is to tell someone he has been cut. “And it’s not always what they want to hear, but I try to come as clear to them as I can. Tell them exactly what took place and why and give them good reason, because I know as soon as they walk out that door, their mind is going a million miles an hour, and they’re trying to figure out why, what can I do, what’s next and what’s going on, and I feel for every one of them.
“And so just tell them straight up, what the situation was, what the opportunities are, because they never over. Guys come back to us all the time. And so there is always to me, there’s always a positive look at it. It’s not like see you later forever. That’s not how we talk. These guys are in this meeting room right here, they deserve to be part of this club. They have given everything they’ve got. I love the way that they’ve fought through, maybe their old habits, old ways, to join us and be part of the mentality that we’re standing for here, and they feel like they’re our guys. So when we have to do that, I’m going to try to open the avenue so that they have a sense of how they could wind up coming back to us. And it happens all the time, so we’ll see.”
At Wednesday’s practice at the team’s Intermountain Health Performance Center, there were 12 wide receivers, 15 defensive backs, 17 defensive linemen, 16 offensive linemen and five tight ends on the field. Obviously, not all of them will make the opening day roster. But there has been fierce competition as veterans are going up against veterans while rookies have faced off against rookies in trying to lock down a spot.
“Yeah, we’ve been battling,” Carroll said about the competitiveness of training camp and into the preseason. “We’ve been battling. It’s every day. They understand that they’re trying to make it hard on the guy across from them just about to the point, Lonnie Johnson said in one of our meetings, when we were talking about competing, he’s talking about, I’m trying to piss you off. I’m trying to make you pissed off at me. He’s talking about pushing so hard that it’s uncomfortable for the guys across from and then you got to deal with it.
“And how do you respond? Do you go throw a punch, or do you kick somebody or hit somebody? Or do you take it to heart, and you take it as the challenge. We’re trying to push it to the edge and everything we’re doing. And so I feel really good about the level of competition.”
Which in the end should make the Raiders a better football team. The final decisions won’t be easy and that is another sign things should be improved.
“Really well,” Carroll said. “Honestly, that’s the conversations that wind up being John (Spytek) and I hammering it out, trying to figure out what we think is going to happen, try to predict the future, and all of that. And that’s all part of it.
“I love to say that we’re always right and we’ve got that nailed, but it’s hard because there’s a lot of variables, and who’s going to become available, and all of that kind of stuff that happens. It’s something we just have to hammer out. We get to a conclusion, and then we go forward and go and stand together on it. That’s how we’ve always done this.”