General Manager Reggie McKenzie
It might be the offseason, but that doesn't mean Reggie McKenzie is taking any time to bask in the afterglow of the Oakland Raiders first trip to the postseason since 2002.
With the Senior Bowl set to kick off Saturday afternoon at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, the Raiders general manger is in Mobile, Ala., and during one of the North squad's practices, he took a few minutes to join Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan on SiriusXM NFL Radio's Moving The Chains.
Here are the quick hits from his time on the air.
**Earlier this week the Raiders hired John Pagano as Assistant Head Coach – Defense. McKenzie discussed what went into the decision to bring him in.
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"Bottom line is, that's a good coach that was available, and I think [Head Coach] Jack [Del Rio] did a really good job researching, and going after the guy he felt that could help us, and that's what we did."
He also spoke about what a valuable asset for player evaluation the Senior Bowl has become.
"The one thing, you get a chance to see them [the players], the person. You get to interview them. You get to sit down with them. You get to see how they prepare, how they practice. The physicality of it, getting the height, weight, speed, all that stuff, numbers, but you get to feel the person when you get down here, and that's one of the main things that you can get out of this. You get to know the guys."
McKenzie has found a plethora of success selecting players who participated in the Senior Bowl, including quarterback Derek Carr.
"I'll tell you what, the one thing that you saw on tape, it showed up down here when he [Carr] came down, and that was that quick release, the mobility that he had, the arm could throw it anywhere on the field, but first and foremost, you got to know the person. After his time during that week, you knew he was going to be a really good leader, and I think he's even better than what I thought there. He had a great interview process for us, and just watching him relate to his teammates on the field, you knew he was going to be a really good leader once he got to the next level."
He also gave a general assessment of the health of the team heading into 2017.
"We just had some – nothing really major – that we felt like, 'oh, we don't know what this guy's going to do afterwards,' but just the maintenance of it. We had a couple of little, small surgeries that we had to do, and they'll rehab, and they should be ready to go this summer when we start up again. We're going to just continue to monitor, and let them rehab. The one thing we have on our side now is time."
