Head Coach Jack Del Rio
Alameda, Calif. – Oakland Raiders Head Coach Jack Del Rio addressed the media before practice Tuesday and discussed a wide variety of topics. Del Rio spoke about how preparing for the Tennessee Titans this Saturday will be different, considering the team plays the Titans in Week 3 of the regular season.
Here are the quick hits from Del Rio's session:
The second-year Raiders head coach continues to praise quarterback Derek Carr's demeanor and natural leadership.
"We're all human but I think Derek does a good job of being even keel. Being in control of your emotions, when you're the leader of the team and you're the quarterback, guys read your body language, they take their pulse from you. I think for us, it's great that he is wired the way he is. He's super competitive, but he remains in control and he works really hard every day here for us. That's a good thing for one of your leaders to have."
Entering the Raiders' third preseason game, Del Rio believes this is the time when pieces start to fall into place.
"This is the time of year when our football team is coming together, building habits that are going to be with us throughout the season. You know, we're not specifically game planning and playing a lot of different people, but you know what it looks like when it looks good. We just want to play good clean football, fundamentally, we work on fundamentals a lot."
He acknowledged the rise of undrafted rookie wide receiver Johnny Holton and his improvement thus far.
"Couple things stand out for me. One, you're talking about a guy defying the odds, in America we like that. It doesn't matter where you come from, how you got here, you get an opportunity. Certainly here at the Raiders we welcome competition, we give legitimate opportunities for some of these undrafted guys to make our team, if they want a spot."
Del Rio noted that since the Raiders play the Titans Week 3 of the regular season, the approach might be different for the game this weekend.
"A little unorthodox or unusual that you have a team you're playing in the third preseason game and then turn around and play them early in the season like that. We're going to go in, we're going to play our guys we're going to work, but obviously I'm sure both sides will hold some things back. You're not going to show everything you want to do in the regular season in a preseason game."
Team chemistry is essential for any organization and Del Rio is pleased with the way the team has bonded to this point.
"You know, we feel like the guys that have come in have really fit in well, they're good teammates, and the chemistry appears to be really good. To me the chemistry, you learn about the chemistry when you go through some rough patches. We haven't even got into the regular season yet, but that's how you really learn how guys are going to stick together, and how they're going to take up for each other, and have each other's back. It's easy when things are going well, the tough part is when you're strained, when you're challenged, when you hit a rough patch how do you respond. That'll be something obviously we'll keep a close eye on."
