Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast: the locker room has spoken
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00:00 Hi everybody, this is Hondo Carpenter from Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation Las Vegas
00:07 Raiders Insider Podcast.
00:09 It's great to be with you today wherever you are.
00:13 I'm taping this super early in the morning because I'm flying to California on assignment.
00:22 I am meeting with someone and gathering some information for my next Deep Dive article.
00:33 Those have become very popular among Raider fans and this is a person that we're going
00:37 to be speaking to for an upcoming Deep Dive article and I think you are going to love
00:45 it.
00:46 It's going to come out the last week of January, first week of February, sometime right in
00:50 there.
00:52 At this point, it appears to be that this is going to be an article that's going to
00:58 - I hate the word investigation because it makes it sound like there's something evil
01:06 and that's not the case.
01:09 But this digging and reporting, this next Raiders Deep Dive article, is probably going
01:17 to be a two or three day piece.
01:20 It's got such voluminous information.
01:23 I think you're going to love it.
01:24 I think it will be one of the most popular that we've ever done and so super excited
01:30 about it.
01:31 But I'm doing this really early in the morning because obviously we do a podcast for you
01:38 every single day but I'm excited about this information.
01:44 I've been digging on this article for over a month.
01:52 And I just think you're going to really love it.
01:53 I think you're going to really like it.
01:55 We're going to have several Deep Dive articles that we're working on over the off season
02:01 as well.
02:02 I think you're going to really super enjoy it.
02:04 Now real quick, we provide for you voluminous amounts of information that's 100% free.
02:14 And I am very well aware that there are some terrific journalists that cover this team
02:21 who charge for content.
02:23 And so when I say to you, and I say it regularly, don't pay people for what we give you for
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02:29 And I mean that.
02:31 But some people have said, "Oh, you're taking shots at whomever."
02:34 No, I'm not taking shots at anybody.
02:36 There's really good people that cover this team that offer you stuff that we don't.
02:40 And you should pay for that.
02:43 But what we give you is voluminous.
02:47 And we've got another new thing, 100% free, that I want to make you aware of.
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03:49 So please check that out, if you would.
03:51 I would greatly appreciate it.
03:54 Now we want to address a couple things with you that I think are really, really important.
04:03 The first is I have been covering sports for decades.
04:08 This is what I do.
04:09 I'm a professional.
04:10 This is my life.
04:13 It's not where I find meaning in my life, but it is my job and I thoroughly enjoy it.
04:19 And I love the company that I work for.
04:23 Tremendous people, great friends.
04:26 I love the way that our company vociferously covers sports and the teams that we cover.
04:35 But in all my years of being around professional sports, I've been around professional baseball,
04:40 professional hockey, professional football, basketball, basketball, football, hockey,
04:50 baseball.
04:51 Yeah, I've been around them all.
04:53 In college, I have never been around a team as rallied behind their coach, in term or
05:00 not, as this team is for Antonio Pierce.
05:05 And it's fascinating to me if I had to offer you my assessment of the situation, and I'm
05:15 there, I'm in the building, I'm around the team, I'm in the locker room, I go to all
05:19 the games.
05:21 If I had to offer you a synopsis of what I think, I think Mark Davis wants to make a
05:34 big splash.
05:37 That's his nature.
05:38 He wants stability.
05:40 He wants that person who's going to take it by the reins.
05:46 But I said to you a few weeks ago, I had a player say to me, if he doesn't pick Antonio
05:54 Pierce and we stay on the road we're on, which was improvement, and they have improved, there
06:03 could be a mutiny.
06:04 Now I'm not expecting people to go in and throw their fist on Mark Davis' desk and demand
06:11 a trade.
06:12 I'm not talking about that.
06:13 But I think it would be not good.
06:21 And I'm going to tell you, the more this team continues to speak out, I think they add to
06:36 that a win.
06:39 And it doesn't have to be like a Chargers win or whatever, but just a win where they
06:44 go and take your business.
06:50 I'm beginning to feel like AP is going to get the job.
06:55 That's not reporting.
06:57 I think Jim Harbaugh is in it.
06:59 I think he would like to get Jim Harbaugh or a John Gruden.
07:06 But here's the situation.
07:11 It's morning now, but last night I was talking with someone in the organization and I made
07:18 a comment.
07:20 It's going to be very difficult for him and an organization that talk about, it's all
07:25 about the players, to for the second time in two years ignore that room.
07:35 That's going to be very difficult to do.
07:36 Now do I think he would do it?
07:37 Well, he did it with Rich Bazzaccia.
07:43 But this is much stronger even than with Rich.
07:45 And let me tell you, the players love Rich.
07:48 This is different.
07:52 I want to address a couple things that from my perspective that I think is important to
07:59 disseminate to you.
08:04 If we don't bring it up to the players, they're bringing it up to us about AP.
08:09 They want it talked about.
08:11 Now there are some people saying falsely, well, he's just a players coach.
08:16 He's a rah-rah coach.
08:17 Now you are entitled to any opinion that you want.
08:21 But if you're not in that locker room or you're not around these guys, your point is ignorant.
08:34 Because he gets on guys, he'll put a boot in the rear.
08:40 That's not a rah-rah guy.
08:43 And for those of you claiming players coach, go back and watch the video I did several
08:48 weeks ago with Braylon Edwards, who's a friend of his.
08:53 Who's a friend of his.
08:56 And his definition, who no one would disagree, was a great NFL player, great college player,
09:04 of what a players coach is.
09:07 Players coach is a coach that will discipline you.
09:10 A players coach is a coach that will get on you.
09:13 Look at how he got on Jack Jones when Jack started to get a little emotional.
09:18 Look at what he did to Marcus Peters and booted him off his team.
09:23 That's what a real players coach is.
09:25 Some people who are not familiar with sports or have not been in it think a players coach is a coach
09:31 that lets you do whatever you want.
09:32 No, a players coach is a guy that loves his players.
09:36 And he'll get on them hard.
09:40 And AP has gotten on some of these guys brutally hard.
09:47 Brutally hard.
09:51 And they still want him.
09:52 I'll give you a great example.
09:54 My father was in the military.
09:59 He was a disciplinarian.
10:02 And he whooped me more times than I can care to remember.
10:06 And I deserved every one of them.
10:08 None of this, oh, that's abuse.
10:10 That wasn't abuse at all.
10:11 He absolutely loved me.
10:13 And so he would sit me down and say, okay, here's why you're going to go spanking.
10:19 And you probably don't care about this, but I'm just trying to put it in context.
10:24 And he'd say, hey, here's a Bible verse.
10:27 It talks about what you did is wrong.
10:29 But you need to know I love you.
10:31 And he would spank me.
10:33 And then we moved on.
10:36 Well, when I got married, he was my best man.
10:45 Yesterday was his birthday.
10:47 And he's since died and gone to heaven.
10:49 But sorry, I just love him to pieces.
10:53 Miss him.
10:54 And so even though he was a disciplinarian, he -- his children revere him and love him.
11:05 To this day, not one of us gets together and it's not all these stories about him.
11:11 My wife even comments, she says it just amazes me.
11:15 It's been all these years and you guys all, every conversation is about your dad anytime you're together.
11:20 Because we loved him.
11:22 He was a great godly man and a tremendous father.
11:27 And so even though he was a disciplinarian, we revered him.
11:30 We respected him and we loved him.
11:33 Okay. Now, I'm not trying to pretend AP's these people, these guys' father.
11:37 They're grown men.
11:39 But he disciplines them and he loves them.
11:45 And so they not only like him, they respect him.
11:50 And he gets on guys.
11:52 In fact, I'm going to have an interview with a player.
11:57 I may not use the player's name, but talking about a couple times he's got on people.
12:03 And I'm not going to say which player, but he's gotten on them brutally hard.
12:11 You know, NFL stands are not for long about effort.
12:16 He just won't tolerate anything else.
12:18 And he will call you out.
12:21 But yet they love him.
12:22 Why? Because these guys want to stay in the league.
12:29 They know if they win, they get more endorsements, more commercials.
12:33 They know if they perform better, they make more money, they get bigger contracts.
12:38 And they know he loves them enough to tell them that that's unacceptable.
12:44 And you don't want to walk in and just find out you're cut.
12:49 I heard it said one time and I thought it was brilliant, brilliant.
12:52 The person that said it was John Robinson.
12:54 You may remember him, the former college coach and well, great coach, not just college, but great coach.
13:03 And he talked about when a player gets cut.
13:10 Never let them be blindsided.
13:14 They should know because the moment you quit coaching them, they know you've quit on them.
13:20 And. That is one thing that AP is able to do is get on guys.
13:29 And he's hard on him.
13:31 Now, I've heard people say, well, go get Ben Johnson, he's a great coordinator.
13:34 Well, you can't make the argument that there's a shift from coordinator to head coach.
13:40 It's an automatic. I'll give you another one.
13:42 And my father was a businessman and he used to always say one of the biggest and he was very successful businessman.
13:48 And he'd say one of the biggest mistakes people make is they take their best salesman out of being a salesman to make him a sales manager.
13:56 What makes oftentimes great salesman doesn't make good management and sometimes good managers don't make good salespeople or whatever.
14:05 You can apply that to your company, whatever you do for a living.
14:09 It's understanding, OK, some guys.
14:13 Don't have to be great coordinators.
14:16 They're leaders of men who then hire coordinators and they become CEOs.
14:23 They lead, they motivate and hire great coaches.
14:29 So if you want Harbaugh, you want Rudin, you want Ben Johnson, you want AP.
14:35 Hey, that's great. Not going to attack anybody who disagrees.
14:40 I think for Mark Davis, this is a legacy defining decision.
14:44 And if he does not hire Antonio Pierce.
14:49 I think he is gambling with his legacy and it's his choice, it's his team, it's not mine.
14:56 To me, I think it's a no brainer.
14:58 If you read my article that I wrote yesterday, if you didn't go back and read it about Champ and Antonio, don't deserve the job.
15:08 They've earned it. And they've earned the Raiders jobs.
15:12 But you look at Champ and his similarities to Ron Wolfe, one of the greatest GMs to ever live.
15:18 You look at AP and his similarities to Art Schell.
15:22 Art was a position coach who became an intern and then got hired.
15:26 John Madden was a position coach, linebackers who gets hired.
15:30 AP's got all of those people said about John Madden.
15:34 Well, you know, he needs to be a coordinator, doesn't have this experience.
15:36 But he was a leader of men who surrounded himself with great leaders.
15:41 Same thing Art did. And so.
15:46 When you look at AP and subsequently Champ.
15:51 You look at guys who are leaders and I'm sorry, I've heard people say, well, Rich Versace got him to the playoffs.
16:00 Yeah. And Rich Versace started three and oh.
16:02 John Gruden started that season three and oh.
16:06 How many more games with this Raider team have won?
16:10 With AP at the helm. I think it's fair to say two or maybe three had he had.
16:19 That's if he had started earlier. Now, I did an interview yesterday in the locker room with Adam Butler and Tyree Wilson.
16:27 We're going to put it up. Soon.
16:35 Now, Adam Butler comes from the Patriots.
16:37 He's friends with Ziegler and McDaniels, and he's close to him.
16:41 He's still close to these guys. He loves them. But even he said.
16:49 Man, I would have really liked to see AP take over earlier.
16:54 Now, what's that saying? Hey, these guys are my friends, but they probably should have made the firing before.
17:01 Wowza. I mean. When he said it, I just about fell over and I was standing up in the locker room.
17:10 Now. That's one of the reasons I love Adam Butler, just genuine and sincere, and he wasn't attacking Dave or attacking Josh.
17:21 He was simply stating the reality.
17:24 If you would have given AP time to assemble a staff, OTAs, mini camps, training camps.
17:33 I think this team is in the playoffs. And had a better record than Visagia, and they didn't start with the three wins.
17:41 I mean, I think that's something that's viable, but.
17:46 I am not, whether you think I am or not, sitting here trying to convince you to agree with me.
17:51 I'm just simply trying to take the information, assimilate it and hand it to you and whoever you want is fine.
17:58 It's fine. It's not a slam.
18:01 I had a person send me an email, a viewer.
18:05 Said, hey, I really enjoy your work. I didn't want to put this in the comments section.
18:10 I didn't want you to think I was disagreeing with you. I really would like John Gruden back.
18:14 And I responded in the email. Why would you be afraid of putting that out there?
18:18 I'm not God. You can disagree with me. I don't take that as a personal assault.
18:25 You can disagree with somebody and be disagreeable, or you can disagree and be a gentleman or a lady and be respectful.
18:34 There's a lot of reasons to like Jim Harbaugh. He's a great coach.
18:39 There are a lot of reasons to like John Gruden. He's a Super Bowl winning coach.
18:46 I mean, come on now. Shoot this thing.
18:49 I mean, let's not pretend like this is, you know, if you like John, you hate Jim and you hate AP.
19:00 Or if you like AP, you hate. Now, come on. I think it's a no brainer.
19:04 You hire AP. But there are a lot of people with differing opinions that make sense.
19:09 But if you're Mark and the position he is in this locker room and what he did with Rich, I don't think he's got an option.
19:16 And I quite frankly think Champ and AP are going to do really well.
19:20 But we'll see. But I think it was important as you as we talk about this transition to talk about that locker room.
19:31 AP's got him right there in his hand.
19:34 Now, one of the things that he has done this week.
19:37 Is talk to the guys about fantastic finishes, finishing strong, putting up good tape,
19:44 whether it's him or somebody else evaluating them, putting things out there that somebody can identify you as a building block.
19:52 I mean, Adam Butler is done with his contract and he's going to get a lot of chances to go to a lot of places.
19:58 And he told me flat out, I want to come back here and play for AP.
20:02 I want to come back here. And I would not be shocked if he does come back.
20:07 He's playing at that high of a level. But those are big deals.
20:11 Those are big things. And I think my job is to take the information that I get and pass it on to you.
20:21 And I think when you're not in that locker room, you know, you can have an opinion.
20:27 But if you're not in there and you don't have information from in there, then it's an uneducated opinion.
20:33 That's fine. That doesn't help. Listen, I've heard people with uneducated opinions that made a lot of sense.
20:39 But to call him a rah-rah guy is foolishness.
20:44 It's an insult, actually, because this is a man of substance.
20:49 And one of the things that AP's done, and I have not talked about this, and this is another point I wanted to to share with you,
20:58 is he's letting his coaches coach.
21:03 Now, I've already said he gets the job.
21:05 I want to word this properly, but I do not anticipate a full return of the staff.
21:13 I think there's going to be some guys that, you know, are I think one or two that need to go.
21:20 I didn't think they should have been here when Josh was here.
21:22 And I believe Dave Ziegler, Josh McDaniels had issues with some of the staff disagreements.
21:29 Not a whole lot, one or two, but I think there'll be staff changes where he feels like, OK, I can upgrade.
21:39 And he will. Because it's all about winning.
21:43 It's all about the team, the team, the team. And it isn't about this guy's my buddy.
21:49 No, if I can upgrade from this guy, go do it.
21:53 Now, another thing I want to address, I've had several people say to me, what about if they hire Jim Harbar or John Gruden and keep.
22:06 Patrick Graham and make AP the assistant head coach, come on.
22:17 I could see keeping AP, but.
22:24 Why would they make AP an assistant head coach and where would he coach?
22:31 Is the assistant head coach who also does linebackers?
22:34 OK, maybe. But do you really think a new coach coming in is going to want to keep.
22:41 A coach who owns that locker room and let me tell you, he owns that locker room.
22:49 He owns it. I mean, if you're going to go marry a lady who's been divorced or a guy who's been divorced.
22:58 Are you OK if the ex says, hey, I'm just going to stay in the bedroom next door?
23:03 Probably not. No, I'm just telling you.
23:09 I could see Patrick staying, maybe AP would.
23:15 I just don't know if another coach is going to want that.
23:19 I just don't see that. I don't think that's viable at all.
23:25 OK, I want to switch directions here a little bit, and I think it's important to talk about what am I looking for?
23:35 What am I looking for as this team progresses?
23:40 Into this weekend, there are a couple of things the players have made this about AP.
23:48 AP is not. They're going to do their best to try to make a statement.
23:55 I know that Josh Jacobs has taken a lot of criticism.
24:01 And I understand that you may remember, I'm the one that said I didn't think the Raiders should have exercised his fifth year option.
24:09 And Josh knows that I've said that when I've talked about it, it wasn't a personal attack.
24:14 He didn't stay healthy. Last year.
24:20 Going into that final contract year, he stayed healthy. OK, this year he didn't.
24:26 So I want to tell you right now. I've heard a lot of people saying, oh, you know, he's he's being a wimp.
24:34 He doesn't want to get hurt. He's saying about next year. I'm telling you, you are welcome to believe that if you want.
24:39 But it's foolishness and it's not real. It's not real.
24:44 I know. When there have been players holding out and not playing who the team thought they could.
24:55 I know how players react when that's the case with players, and I'm going to tell you flat up, Josh Jacobs is genuine.
25:05 If he if he thought that he would just say, yeah, you know, I just think it's I'm not 100 percent and probably going to check out.
25:14 No, he wants to play. But at the same time, he does have to think about himself.
25:19 And if playing risks. Injuring himself and affecting next year, that's a big deal, and I don't blame him.
25:26 And by the way, AP doesn't want him playing if that's the case.
25:31 So get mad at AP. But I expect, you know, do I think Josh would play?
25:36 Well, he hasn't played the last two weeks, so I would say skeptical.
25:41 But not improbable yet. But I expect these guys to come out and they want to make a statement.
25:52 Raider Nation, I know a lot of tickets were sold before the regime change, but man, I expect this that place to be rocking on Sunday, rocking.
26:05 And I expect there to be a ton of thumping as that Raiders team is going to be incredibly physical.
26:14 Incredibly physical, they are going to come out on the attack.
26:19 Now, Jared Stidham is the quarterback now of the Broncos.
26:22 And by the way, he was very light, really good guy, very much liked in that locker room.
26:29 So I've heard people say, oh, they're going to want to kill him.
26:31 Oh, they're going to want to abuse him.
26:33 But he's their friend. And it's like, you know, I remember playing football with my brothers.
26:39 I had a couple of older brothers, my brother Scott and Greg, and they were.
26:47 Eight and nine years older than me.
26:50 So we played out, you know, yard football and they would just abuse their little brother.
26:56 Well, then we start playing with other guys and be some of my age friends and some of their age friends.
27:00 And I'll never forget one time one of their age friends plowed me over.
27:04 My brother Scott's like, no. In the words of Damon Wayans, "Homie don't play that."
27:12 And I mean, made it clear, you know, I can beat up on my brother, you can't.
27:16 And they love Jared. So it's not a dislike in the least bit at all.
27:23 But they're going to come out physical and wanting to make a statement.
27:28 Now, offensively, they were offensive last week.
27:35 And they've had a couple of games where offensively they've been offensive.
27:39 But I want you to think about a couple of things.
27:43 No OTAs, no mini camps, no training camp, no trades to try to change the offense.
27:50 I mean, the Raiders couldn't run their offense when Josh McDaniels was here.
27:55 So they had to take a ton of the playbook out.
27:58 They lost two offensive coaches and Mick Lombardi and Josh McDaniels.
28:04 So they were trying to run an offense down two offensive coaches, two.
28:10 And with a rookie, sticking with a rookie, and I think Aiden O'Connell has done a lot of good things.
28:21 But the point is they still have been an offensive offense a couple of times, and they're going to need to be better.
28:29 Now, Denver's got a very good defense.
28:34 Do I think it's elite? No.
28:39 Do I think it's very good? I do. Very good.
28:43 So I expect this to be a battle.
28:48 I'm not ready to make a prediction right now, but I mean, I would be somewhere in the 21-17 range, Raiders, something like that.
28:59 Again, that's not my final prediction. I'll make that on Sunday.
29:02 But I expect them to come out and make a statement, leave everything on the field.
29:11 They don't have to be as conservative because they're out of playoff contentions.
29:15 It's KD, bar the door. Let's just go play Raider, smash mouth, beat 'em up, blood, guts, football.
29:30 Don't you love this game? I'm just going to take a side moment here.
29:34 And don't you just love the game of football? Man, what a precious sport.
29:40 And so that's what I expect to see. I expect them to come out and say, we're going to make a statement for our coach.
29:48 We're going to stand for our coach. And we're going to make it happen for our coach.
29:54 And we'll get into much more on Monday.
29:59 We'll get into a lot more really next Tuesday about the process moving forward, what that process is going to look for.
30:05 I'm going to probably talk a little bit about it on Sunday's podcast before the game.
30:12 Just what to be looking for, you know, a time frame when I think Mark would make a decision.
30:18 All of those things. We'll get into a lot more.
30:21 But again, in that locker room. I've never seen anything like it.
30:29 It is one you never get a locker room, 100 percent united.
30:35 Just doesn't happen. I mean, take.
30:42 Sixty five people. Randomly in America, different races, different religions, different socioeconomic backgrounds, different education levels.
30:53 Take those people, throw them in a room. And show me when you're going to have total unanimity.
31:02 You're not. And there are times I disagree with myself, I'll get off the podcast and say, I don't agree with that.
31:09 I should. I think this now. OK, it's hard to have unanimity with one.
31:15 They're united. There's unanimity. And I think the Raiders players.
31:21 No, I'm not going to say I think because that's not being truthful.
31:24 I know the Raiders players want to come out and make a statement.
31:31 This is their last chance to make a statement, some of them.
31:36 They're not under contract, so it's either for the Raiders or the next team.
31:40 But that's not why they're wanting to make a statement. AP has been selfless.
31:50 Champ Kelly has been selfless. These players.
31:59 Are coming out selfless. They want to make a statement.
32:05 They want to make a strong statement. AP's their coach.
32:10 That's who they want leading them. Told you before, I think there are great coaches lining up who want to come coach for AP.
32:18 Some great free agents that want to play for AP.
32:21 The future of this franchise is silver and black.
32:26 And it's a bright silver and black.
32:32 Will Mark Davis. The second time in two years go against that locker room, he certainly could.
32:40 Man. I think Mark Davis is a lot of things and I don't think he's stupid.
32:48 Not at all. He's a brilliant businessman. I still see it.
32:58 Maybe that's why I'm not saying it's a done deal.
33:01 I'm not reporting it as a done deal in the least bit because it's not.
33:05 But it should be, in my opinion, and it's going to be fascinating to watch.
33:09 I hope you have a great day. We got tons of content coming.
33:13 As you know, I'm going to be in Cali just for the day. I'll be back tonight.
33:17 I'm just flying down for this deep dive article, meeting with somebody.
33:23 Garnering and gathering information. And but we're there.
33:28 Zeke's going to be there in the locker room. We got all kinds of stories coming for you at SI.com/NFL/Raiders.
33:36 Remember, go there, hit the newsletter. Follow me on Instagram @HondoSR.
33:41 Follow me on X, formerly known as Twitter, which is @HondoCarpenter.
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34:00 We appreciate all of you guys. We are so grateful.
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34:21 Humbly wish you nothing but the very best. So from all of us to you, I hope you're doing great.
34:26 We'll talk to you again tomorrow. God bless you. Have a great day. We'll see you soon, Raider Nation.