Friday afternoon, the Oakland Raiders held their pre-draft press conference with General Manager Reggie McKenzie. He met with members of the media to discuss the upcoming 2018 NFL Draft, and touched on a couple other topics as well.
Here are the quick hits from his media session:
McKenzie divulged what he and Head Coach Jon Gruden are looking for when they draft players.
"Raiders. The characteristics of that is just being good football players. It's not about height, weight, speed or where they come from. It's about who they are as players. Do they love playing football? All those types of characteristics that you truly like about football players."
After targeting several players in free agency, McKenzie shared how that impacts the Draft.
"It's always a situation where players come up, whether you need them or whether you want them, versus the best player. We just try to fill the roster up. If we saw a player out there that we could really go get, that's what we did this offseason. Whether it's to patch holes, we just wanted to bring in some good competition, some good players, some leadership. That's what we did. Now, going into this draft, that will play a part only from the standpoint of competition. We're not going to not get a position player because we signed a certain guy. If there's a player on our board that we really like, we're still going to try to get him."
McKenzie talked about what he's learned about Gruden through working with him so far.
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Preview the Raiders' 2018 regular season opponents and schedule.
Raiders vs. Rams – Week 1 - Sept. 10 - 7:20 p.m. - Monday Night Football (Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press)
Raiders at Broncos – Week 2 - Sep. 16 - 1:25 p.m.
Raiders at Dolphins – Week 3 – Sep. 23 – 10 a.m.
Raiders vs. Browns – Week 4 – Sep. 30 – 1:05 p.m. (Scott Boehm/Associated Press)
Raiders at Chargers – Week 5 – Oct. 7 – 1:05 p.m.
Raiders vs. Seahawks (London) – Week 6 – Oct. 14 – 10 a.m. (Eric Risberg/Associated Press)
Raiders vs. Colts – Week 8 – Oct. 28 – 1:05 p.m.
Raiders at 49ers – Week 9 – Nov. 1 – 5:20 p.m. - Thursday Night Football (Kevin Terrell/Associated Press)
Raiders vs. Chargers – Week 10 – Nov. 11 – 1:05 p.m. (NFL Photos/Associated Press)
Raiders at Cardinals – Week 11 – Nov. 18 – 1:05 p.m. (Paul Spinelli/Associated Press)
Raiders at Ravens – Week 12 – Nov. 25 – 10 a.m.
Raiders vs. Chiefs – Week 13 – Dec. 2 – 1:05 p.m.
Raiders vs. Steelers – Week 14 – Dec. 9 – 5:20 p.m. - Sunday Night Football (Al Tielemans/Associated Press)
Raiders at Bengals – Week 15 – Dec. 16 – 10 a.m. (Paul Spinelli/Associated Press
Raiders vs. Broncos – Week 16 – Dec. 24 – 5:15 p.m. - Monday Night Football
Raiders at Chiefs – Week 17 – Dec. 30 – 10 a.m. (Ed Zurga/Associated Press)
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"Oh man, he's a bowling ball of butcher knives. (laughter) He's great. I love the fire, I love the enthusiasm. We can talk football all day and watch film. I mean, it's been really good. I'm excited to watch him on the grass and get out there and watch practice. It's fun. That's what I expected. He's going to make it fun and not just for his players and coaches but it's fun being around him and I like that."
The Raiders GM shared that there's no update on defensive end Khalil Mack's contract extension at this point.
"No, we look at Khalil as his own situation. We're not looking at anybody else. We're just focusing on our guy."
Following the 2018 regular season schedule release Thursday, McKenzie discussed the upcoming slate of games for the Silver and Black.
"That's the way it is. We're excited. To open up on Monday Night, being at home, it's going to be a good one. I think the schedule has worked out pretty good. In the long run, we got a few TV games which is good for the players and it's good for Raider Nation. They can watch us on that forum. We're excited for this schedule. We'll see how it is in the end with the cold weather, but that's not going to be a problem."
