Raiders Quotes<\/p>\n
Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak on playing the offensive first-string units:<\/p>\n
“That was my decision. Just wanted our guys to play together, so I was excited to get them out there together.”<\/p>\n
Kubiak on quarterback Fernando Mendoza’s performance:<\/p>\n
“On our offense, we didn’t score at all, so we didn’t help the team get victories. I think he has a pick, but I think it was a drop ball. We have a couple sacks, some plays that I can do better for him as well.”<\/p>\n
Kubiak on facing the 49ers pass rush:<\/p>\n
“That’s the NFL, and every week it’s going to be that. It’s going to be just like Maxx (Crosby)’s practices every day. That’s the NFL. Offensively, we got to find a better way to get points on the board.”<\/p>\n
Kubiak on what he was looking for from players competing for roster spots:<\/p>\n
“The special teams reps are so important. Those are critical overall. Guys did a better job with penalties, played much better technically tonight, but you’re just trying to see those bottom of the roster guys. How much value can they add to your team, so I look forward to watching the special teams film.”<\/p>\n
Kubiak on the defense’s third-down performance:<\/p>\n
“Yeah, Rob (Leonard) and the whole staff did a great job. The guys played hard. I’m not sure if they converted one in the first half. I don’t remember. But, defense came out fired and they played a great game.”<\/p>\n
Kubiak on the value of the preseason finale for Mendoza’s development:<\/p>\n
“Yeah, it is. It is. It’s his reps. It’s learning from Kirk (Cousins)’s reps, from Aidan (O’Connell)’s reps. Very valuable for him to get all those reps. I’d love to play him the whole game, but there’s other guys that we want to get looked at. I thought overall, in this preseason, that we got him plenty of time. I’m happy with where he’s at, but we just got to keep pushing him to be better.”<\/p>\n
Kubiak on the upcoming roster decisions:<\/p>\n
“Yeah, it’s not going to be fun. It’s hard decisions. There’s guys that have been working their tails off with us since April that aren’t going to get to be here and that’s part of the NFL.”<\/p>\n
Raiders QB Kirk Cousins on the positives from the first-team offense:<\/p>\n
“Yeah, we can talk about the positives, we can talk about, like you say, coming away with points, converting third downs, running the football well, avoiding penalties, protecting the football \u2013 all positives. I could also sit here and talk about some of the meat we left on the bone and some of the plays that we could have made or should have made or reads I should have made. So, goes both ways and that’s what it’s all about and going back and watching the tape but certainly some positives.”<\/p>\n
Cousins on running back Mike Washington Jr.:<\/p>\n
“Yeah, he runs hard, fast, tough player. Football’s important to him, and he’s a young player, so there’s going to be moments where you say, ‘Yeah, he’s not a fifth-year player that has seen it all and done it all.’ And I think that’s where myself and others, we have to come alongside him and help him and enable him to start to feel comfortable early on. Even though he doesn’t have a lot of reason to feel comfortable, I want to do everything I can to make him feel comfortable there. And he did a nice job tonight running the football.”<\/p>\n
Cousins on his growth from the beginning of Training Camp:<\/p>\n
“I think it’s every day, just trying to find continued improvement. You’re never a finished product. You’re always looking for ways to be better and to continue in your fundamentals and owning the game plan and how you operate in that plan. So, it’s a progress, but I think it’s been a productive training camp, productive preseason. But as Tom Brady, when he spoke to us, one of the many good things he said to us was, ‘Hey, everybody has training camp, everybody has preseason games, so to think that you’re somehow getting ahead of everybody else just because you went out to practice and practiced, there is no edge there in the sense that everybody else is doing that too.’ You’ve got to find your edge within those practices, or post practice, or in the way you relate to one another. So, there’s ways you’ve got to find edges, but it’s not just showing up to practice and doing your job because everybody’s doing that.”<\/p>\n
Raiders QB Fernando Mendoza on facing the 49ers pass rush:<\/p>\n
“I believe the pass rush was fantastic tonight, and I think it’s a great experience. I think our offensive line did fantastic as well, but I think it’s also a great experience of the NFL. Whether they like it or not, there are monsters at the other side of the ball, and you need to get the ball out quick. It teaches you need to play on time, and there’s less margin for error. I think it’s a great experience having that heat and duress because diamonds are built under pressure. They’re built under fire, being forged like that. So, when you’re able to play under that duress, that’s when you’re able to elevate your game, and I think it’s a good experience.”<\/p>\n
Mendoza on what he’s learned about the NFL:<\/p>\n
“The NFL is really tough, and there is a big jump going from college to the NFL, and the speed, and there’s just so many different aspects. And the NFL is a tough business, and it’s a challenge I look forward to taking head on with my teammates, and I’m excited for the future. That was my dream as a young kid. Now I have goals in the future that hopefully, that us as a team, we can accomplish to best serve the teammates and best serve the silver and black.”<\/p>\n
Mendoza on what he learned during his first NFL preseason:<\/p>\n
“There’s been a lot to learn this preseason, and I’ve learned so much from the veterans, and then also the other rookies in our locker room, and especially such a fantastic opportunity to grow through the highs and lows of training camp of the preseason. We take every day as its own day, but I would say that it’s been a pleasure, and I’ve grown a lot this preseason. Like I said before, if there were three more preseason games, I would play them. I think from snap one of Arizona to the last snap I took here against the Niners, I believe I’ve grown as a quarterback, although it might not always show on the stat sheet.”<\/p>\n
Raiders RB Mike Washington Jr. on the opportunity to play with the first-team offense:<\/p>\n
“Like I said last week, I’m staying where my feet are, and taking advantage of the opportunity to be able to go out there and compete against their ones and run with our ones. It’s a good experience.”<\/p>\n
Washington Jr. on feeling more comfortable in the NFL:<\/p>\n
“I’m just grateful for the opportunity. A couple times, I just sat there and I was like, ‘Wow, I’m in the NFL.’ I’m just grateful for the opportunity.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Raiders Quotes Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak on playing the offensive first-string units: “That was my decision. Just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":985896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[21899,583,89420,103814,10124,353,354,7,6066,59571,116784,6508,8072,7900,2812,1744,393,2455,2454,352,5215,1493,88,6,1515,31402,525,129211],"class_list":["post-985895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-las-vegas-raiders","tag-adrian-martinez","tag-alfred-collins","tag-brooke-evans","tag-carver-willis","tag-eddy-pineiro","tag-english","tag-english-articles","tag-football","tag-george-kittle","tag-hayden-rucci","tag-jaden-dugger","tag-jordan-james","tag-jordan-watkins","tag-keion-white","tag-kyle-shanahan","tag-las-vegas","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-lasvegas","tag-lasvegasraiders","tag-latest-app","tag-mac-jones","tag-mykel-williams","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-nick-bosa","tag-quotes","tag-raiders","tag-san-francisco-49ers-at-las-vegas-raiders-2026-pre-3"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117175776962679421","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=985895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/985896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=985895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=985895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=985895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}