The first Raiders training camp of the Pete Carroll era is underway and by all accounts, there seems to be a new sense around the team after nearly two years with head coach Josh McDaniels and one full season with Antonio Pierce in the big chair.
For those who were around for training camp in recent years, there has been a lot of talk about a different energy under Carroll and the practices seem to be more productive.
Flagship radio host ‘JT the Brick’ said this week that Carroll’s practices have been more focused and faster than what he witnessed prior to this year.
“The practices weren’t very good [last year], because the offense couldn’t get anything going,” JT said on his Raider Nation Radio show. “And as I’ve reported just what I’ve seen and talking to others, it really seems like everything is much more focused and faster. That it [has been] ‘really clean’ is the word that I would use.”
JT wasn’t directly critical of any former coaches, but last week, Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter referenced a conversation he had with another member of the media, and Carpenter was a little more specific on where he feels previous coaching staffs fell short.
“Last year, I remember me and… one of our colleagues, and I’m not going to name them… I don’t know if he would want this opinion public, but one of our colleagues, the three of us were standing there… and we were talking about how much wasted time we saw last year with [Antonio Pierce],” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.
“They would go over and, you know I’m all for watching the big screen during a water break, but there just seemed to be a lot of wasted time in practice,” Hondo continued. “They wanted to correct problems right then. Okay, great. With Pete and his staff, first of all, I think this is tremendous staff, and they’re correcting problems now, but they’re doing it very fast, and then spending a lot of time in the classroom.”
“In fact, players have told me they’re not spending anywhere close to the amount of time they spent with Josh McDaniels in the classroom, and it’s almost about the same or a little bit shorter than even AP,” Hondo added. “They’re loving it. In fact, one of the players told me this week, he said ‘The thing I love so far about Pete is he is so respectful of our time, so you want to listen. He tells us, stay engaged, I don’t have to keep you here forever.’”
It’s been well documented where McDaniels fell short as head coach of the Raiders, but not as much has been reported on Pierce’s relatively short tenure as head coach.
By all accounts, Pierce never lost the respect of the team and the media, and that probably has a lot to do with why he left the organization on much better terms than McDaniels did in 2023.
x: @raidersbeat
Can you guys stop calling Hondo an insider? He’s so full of crap it’s getting beyond annoying.
Does anyone actually believe that Hondo had players come up to him & say Pete is respectful of their time & then he just magically remembers a conversation with members of the media a year ago where they go “yeah there’s a wasted time out here @ practice.” But it’s just so important to not disclose who he was talking about this to. As if that’s some major story he has to keep secret for a flipping year.
I mean Hondo why didn’t you bring this up after AP’s firing? This guy is so flipping annoying. I mean JT/Vinny are freaking shills but at least they don’t just make crap up out of thin air.