Quick Hits: Josh McDaniels addresses media following initial 53-man roster announcement

Aug 30, 2023 at 04:07 PM

Levi Edwards

Digital Team Reporter

Twenty-four hours have now passed since the Las Vegas Raiders released their initial 53-man roster. Additionally, the Silver and Black signed 14 players to the practice squad Wednesday – including two new faces in wide receivers Devin Ross and Antoine Wesley.

Read through for some of the top quotes from Coach McDaniels' media availability Wednesday morning as he addressed the transactions and decisions.

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Overview of the 53-man roster:

"They're tough decisions and a lot of things go into them, a lot of discussions, a lot of people. We're evaluating our team and what would be best going forward, and just trying to look at everything from all sides and see if we can put together the best group that we can that gives us the best chance to compete every week. I think it's still a fluid process. There's still some things that I'd say are up in the air here relative to practice squad or those kinds of things. But right now, I think we've tried to put together the group that we feel best about going forward, and I'm sure there'll be some things that get tweaked here."

On DT Matthew Butler:

"Matthew is one of the few that I can confirm is back on the practice squad right now. So, we released him but also have a chance to continue working with him, which is great. And again, I think we've just got to hold ourselves to that standard of whatever is best for the team. Those are the decisions we want to try to make regardless of how they got here, what round it was, free agency, not free agency, whatever. We're just trying to do the best thing for the 2023 Raiders."

The writing on the wall looks like Michael Mayer could potentially have a nice role in this #Raiders offense pic.twitter.com/i3eVy9DHgQ
— Levi Edwards (@theleviedwards) August 30, 2023

On getting the rookie class prepared for regular season:

"[T]here's another element of teaching that they're going to go through here. How to go through a regular season week, how to understand an opponent, how to learn a game plan. That process is going to be new to all of them, too. So, I'm excited for our coaching staff to keep working with them and coaching them, and those guys are all excited to continue to work and develop, and hopefully some of them are going to contribute here quickly."

On receiver Kristian Wilkerson:

"I think he's worked really hard to put himself in position to compete this year in camp, and I thought he did some good things in the summer. I thought he did some good things in the games, competed hard – not only on offense, but in the kicking game as well. That room was very competitive. It was probably one of the more competitive rooms we've had in the two years we've been here. Tough decisions. Just felt like he had done enough to really earn an opportunity."

Back in business.#RaiderNation | @IAm_JoshJacobs pic.twitter.com/BnglX8Dfse
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) August 27, 2023

On easing Josh Jacobs back into action:

"I'm eager to have him on the practice field and just get him started and get him acclimated here the next couple of days and then into next week. There's always things you're sorting through whether it's injuries or just other decisions that you want to try to make sure you've got the right thing going into the season. So, we'll take our time and try to make the right choice on that."

On guard Greg Van Roten:

"He's been a really important cog for us here as we've kind of gone through Training Camp. He acclimated quickly to our terminology. He is a physical guy that practices well every day and does a good job of communicating with the guys on either side of him; understands the offense, has played a lot of football, has multiple-position value for us. If something were ever to happen, you'd have some flexibility there with both him and Dylan [Parham] and really all the guys inside other than Andre [James] have some flexibility to center there. Just a good football player, glad we have him."

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Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby (98) during practice at Intermountain Health Performance Center.