HENDERSON, Nev.—Tomorrow marks the dawning of a new era for the Las Vegas Raiders, hoping that the future burns as brightly as the torch lit outside Intermountain Healthcare Performance Center.
The Raiders feel like a series of exciting developments just waiting to happen. The intrigue on offense is centered by the inevitable quarterback battle about to brew throughout August, while further attention will shift to whether the investments both this spring and over the past couple of years will pay dividends.
All of it comes down to Klint Kubiak, who will not only be eager to implement his vision of the Raiders, but seeing which guys take the initiative and stand out in the early days.
We have a starting point on where those reps want to be for the guys,” said Kubiak on Tuesday. “I know we’re really thoughtful about how many reps each guy’s getting against what defense. We have an early-on plan, but it’s always a moving target.”
The early key for Kubiak, and likely the focal point for deciding who gets what reps, is how quickly the players can adopt a team-first mentality.
Kubiak made it clear that he wants to eliminate the “I” as quickly as possible from the team, wanting them to focus on how each player makes the team better as a whole. While self-motivation is a positive trait, he hopes that the time the players and coaches have had to recharge leads to a group that is equipped with the mental fortitude required to handle the rigors of the months ahead.
Maybe no player, however, exemplifies this more than Jermod McCoy, the talented cornerback out of Tennessee who saw his draft year come to an abrupt end before even playing a game. With a year away of football, McCoy will be chomping at the bit to get back on the field starting tomorrow, but the key for him is to get him up to the speed of the professional game.
“He's a guy that's worked extremely hard and has been dedicated to the program that we put in front of him,” said Kubiak about the fourth-round rookie. “Jermod hasn't played football in here, and we're aware of that, but he’s ready to go practice tomorrow, and we're also going to be really smart with him and develop him the right way.”
Whereas McCoy joins a cornerback room pushing for greater responsibility, the fact is that competition can be found virtually everywhere on the Raiders’ roster.
Sure, no one will likely challenge a Maxx Crosby, Brock Bowers or Ashton Jeanty, but that still leaves plenty of snaps and targets to go around. Every player will need to make the opportunities they get count, even when the positional battles are finished and starters for Week One are decided. Kubiak even alluded to the fact that starting Week One does not guarantee a starting job for the entire regular season, so the competition will always be looking for a chance to poach additional opportunities when the time arises.
Nowhere is that philosophy more notably felt than the quarterback battle, where Kubiak has said he intends to keep a close eye on every aspect, particularly in regards to Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza.
“You know his leadership, his veteran presence, and the way that he played in the spring was excellent,” said Kubiak about Cousins.
“We brought him here to play really good football, and obviously the mentorship, that's a byproduct. That’s the kind of guy that that Kirk is. But Kirk knows, and Fernando knows, and Aidan [O’Connell] knows, and Jacob [Clark] knows that they're here to play great football, and that's our job as coaches to get them ready for the other stuff.”
However, Kubiak did shed a little light on the situation by stating that Cousins would get the initial first-team reps, although he expects Mendoza and O’Connell to “push him” going forward.
Despite all of that, Kubiak welcomes the competition, placing the impetus on the players to make his and his coaching staff’s decisions easier. What that necessarily entails is still uncertain, but it is clear that reps and snaps for the Raiders will not be handed out, but earned by merit.
“For every position, there's got to be competition, right? The best player has to play, but…you guys are going to see it in preseason games,” said Kubiak to close his conference.
“We as coaches, we're going to see who the best guard is. Okay, best quarterback across the board. There’s battles everywhere on the roster, so it's important for me to be fair to the players to put the best player out there.”
Whether it’s the summer-long battle between Cousins and Mendoza, the fight for the two guard spots, or even just scratching and clawing to see their name on the 53-man roster, the opportunity is there for each and every Raider to make a positive impression.
All that remains is to see who seizes the moment when the spotlight falls on them.