Getty Las Vegas Raiders QB Derek Carr.
Mike Mayock hasn’t always been great about not stirring the pot since he was hired by the Las Vegas Raiders. His stance of trying to upgrade every position in the offseason gave the Derek Carr detractors a lot of ammo. The team ended up sticking with the quarterback and they seem happy for now.
Mayock came out recently and leveled some very high praise for the quarterback.
“I’m just really pleased with the way Derek Carr has taken over this football team,” Mayock told reporters Tuesday. “And it goes back to the offseason, it goes back to all the workouts he had with the players and the players just confirming their buy-in. And that’s been awesome. I think Derek is just a natural. I think he gets better every day with Jon [Gruden] in Year 3. That’s been awesome.”
Mayock doesn’t sound like a man who is about to move on from his quarterback. Carr has been criticized a lot in the past but he’s not a bad player. In fact, the Raiders would have a hard time finding a better quarterback to lead the team. Unless he has a colossal meltdown this year, it doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere anytime soon.
Mayock Stresses That Rookies Have to Earn Respect
The Raiders have put a lot of stock in their rookies since the hiring of Mayock and it’s paid off. Last year, the team had a really impressive draft class and the reviews have been looking good for new batch of rookies. However, Mayock isn’t ready to anoint anybody yet.
“They’ve gotten a lot of pretty good press. A lot of people are patting them on the butt,” Mayock said. “You know what? It’s not time to anoint anybody yet. This is what we talked about last year with Josh Jacobs and everybody else. You got to earn it in this league. We don’t have any preseason games to do it, which exaggerates the evaluation process for us. The snapshot of the rookies has been good. But that doesn’t mean anything. They got to compete on special teams, they got get off press coverage in a real game. There’s an awful long way to go before we anoint anybody in this rookie class.”
The Raiders like to keep it old school so the rookies are still going to need to prove themselves. There’s a lot of excitement in the building surrounding a number of players but they aren’t going to be handed anything. This style paid off for the Raiders last season and should pay off again this year.
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Mayock Addresses Tyrell Williams Injury
Training camp seems to be mostly a big success for the Raiders this year but not everything has been perfect. News recently broke that starting wide receiver Tyrell Williams tore a labrum in his shoulder. Though it’s not a sure thing he’s going to miss time, the injury will certainly hamper his effectiveness. Mayock had a chance to address the injury.
“Tyrell is down for whatever period of time,” Mayock said. “But I think the rest of the guys see it as an opportunity.”
It’s unfortunate that the team could lose one of their best wide receivers but the Raiders do have some young, exciting talent at the position. Bryan Edwards could rise a lot sooner than anybody expected.
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