Head Coach Jack Del Rio
The Oakland Raiders were back at the team's facility in Alameda, Calif., Monday, and Head Coach Jack Del Rio met with the local media to recap Sunday's effort against the New York Jets. The Silver and Black had a balanced effort on both sides of the ball, posting 45 points, while limiting the Jets to 20 points.
Here are the quick hits from his Monday press conference:
**Del Rio talked about one of the team's undrafted free agents, rookie linebacker Nicholas Morrow.
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"Yeah, he's done a nice job. Developing him, he has speed. He was able to do some things in coverage. Yesterday became a coverage game and he ended up getting in there for a good number of snaps. We'll continue to develop him in all areas, developing him on special teams. We need to continue to develop some of our younger players there. We lost some of our veteran experience from last year in that area. Certainly, bringing along a guy like Nick is important for us."
He touched on the team's nine penalties Sunday, but doesn't believe there's any reason for concern.
"No, it's not concerning at all. We didn't get our head across with Donald [Penn] on the one he was called on clipping. That's just a change of the rule that he knows he has to get his head in front of that guy. We were offside with Khalil [Mack]; that's a no-brainer. Johnny [Holton] did step out on his own. Those were easy to kind of identify. Some of the judgement, I didn't necessarily agree with, but that doesn't matter. They have to make judgements. They make the judgements, we live with it and we move on."
Rookie cornerback Gareon Conley's impressed his head coach in his NFL debut.
"He did a nice job. He was in position. He had one allowed pass in front of him that was challenged. He had one other play that was thrown where they tried to go on top and he was in great position and defended the ball. Probably looking back, would try and catch it the next time, but did a nice job defending that. He was solid on the day. He was in position doing the things he was supposed to do. Showed up in cracked some plays in run support, showed up as a tackler when balls were thrown in front of him."
Del Rio commented on what he noticed from second-year running back Jalen Richard's vision on his fourth-quarter touchdown.
"I wouldn't say that there's a huge jump. I think he's got great vision, he had great vision last year and he's still got great vision. I think what he has added with it now is a little bit of experience of how holes open and close at the NFL levels as compared to college. He's got good vision and burst and that was a heck of a run. He wasn't going to let anyone catch him."
He seemed pleased with the effort right tackle Marshall Newhouse has contributed in the early going of the regular season.
"I think he's done a solid job with that. Little bit unusual that he's a swing guy, was signed to come in and compete at the right tackle position and then with the holdout, he played left tackle most of the offseason. The way it worked, he and Vadal [Alexander] competed for the right tackle spot last week and we ended up going with Marshall and he's been very solid. Both of those guys are prepared to help us. Marshall solidified that job, played well yesterday."
