After enjoying the weekend off after beating the San Diego Chargers 23-20 Thursday night, the Oakland Raiders returned to the team's Alameda, Calif., facility Monday.
Monday afternoon, Head Coach Jack Del Rio held his usual postgame-press conference; here are the highlights from his time behind the microphone.
He shared his thoughts about fullback Marcel Reece being suspended for four games for violating the NFL policy on performance enhancing substances.
"We were informed today that is the case. I would just hope at some point that the league takes a good look at the process, see if it makes sense. I think there's room there for something to be done that maybe would be more fair and just, but we understand what's occurred, and what the result is, and we'll abide and carry on without Marcel."
Even without Reece, the team believes in the next-man-up-philosophy.
"Next guy up. That's what we do. Obviously, he's a good player. He's not a major part of what we do. He's a part of what we do, but it's not like we're taking out 50, or 60, or 70 percent of our offense when we remove him. We'll get the next guy up and be ready to roll."
Playing the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 17 presents a great opportunity for the Silver and Black.
"For us, we get a chance to play each of our division opponents one time in the last month of the season, and Kansas City is next. It's our next opportunity. I know we want to play well. For us, it's about winning. You get those opportunities to go compete and our guys have been great about remaining steadfast and continuing to work hard, believing in what we're doing here, and we're just going to keep doing it."
"I really believe in what we've started here."
"I really believe in what we've started here, and I believe there will be momentum going into the offseason, regardless of the outcome of this game. I would say that I want very badly to go on the road and win a game this weekend."
Rookie linebacker Ben Heeney has been impressive as of late.
"Ben's been really good. I think the other night, his ability to close and tackle [San Diego Chargers running back Danny] Woodhead in a couple of critical moments of the ballgame, I thought that was huge. He's got the speed, and he arrives with a punch. I thought he made a couple of key stops for us, getting him down and keeping short gains as short gains, because Woodhead has the ability to make that guy miss or outrun that guy, and all of a sudden he's making noise in your secondary, so it was good for us to see, and nice job by Ben."
