Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast, Antonio Pierce's staff, Bo Nix, salary cap, just shut him up, NFL Draft, more
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00:00 Hi everybody, this is Hondo Carpenter from the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast.
00:06 It is great to be with you today.
00:08 Happy Monday.
00:09 It's combine week.
00:11 Christmas.
00:12 Love this time of year.
00:14 Love getting to cover football.
00:16 What a great job.
00:17 And I just want to take a moment.
00:19 You people are amazing.
00:22 And because of your liking and subscribing and sharing and all that you do, we're growing
00:28 exponentially and to you goes all the credit.
00:32 To you, to God be the glory and to you all the credit.
00:35 And so I just want you to know I appreciate you.
00:38 If you haven't subscribed, please do so.
00:41 Like, share, let the word get out there.
00:43 And it's combine week.
00:44 So the rest of the week I'll be coming to you from Indianapolis.
00:49 So really looking forward to getting into a ton of combine.
00:54 We're going to have a ton of video.
00:57 There's going to be a lot going on.
00:58 So super excited to visit with you all today.
01:01 We got a ton to talk about.
01:03 Got a very important email that I want to address some one of you.
01:07 We're going to talk about the salary cap.
01:10 We're also going to deal with some staff.
01:13 I want to talk a lot about AP and his staff.
01:17 That to me is very, very important.
01:20 And then we're going to look at some weaknesses in the draft.
01:24 And then we're going to also talk about, no, you shut up.
01:29 So we're going to have a good time today.
01:31 Let's just get right in with the you shut up.
01:34 And then we're going to get into a lot more.
01:37 Last week I got into a podcast and I don't remember what day it was.
01:41 For some reason, I think it was Friday, but one of my podcasts and I talked about the
01:47 criticism Antonio Pierce has gotten.
01:50 First comments about taking the head off the snake.
01:54 And people went to the NFL and the NFL says nothing.
01:57 Crickets.
01:58 Because what's the NFL going to say?
02:01 You can't talk tough.
02:03 It's football.
02:08 People trying to turn the Karen, the Karenification of football, K-A-R-E-N, Karenification of
02:16 football or the wimpification of football.
02:19 And I talked about some of y'all need to go back and listen to some old Al Davis interview.
02:26 Within the first few plays of the game, the quarterback must go down and must go down
02:31 hard.
02:32 Football.
02:34 All AP's doing is being a Raider.
02:39 So anybody that wants him to shut up, what you're literally saying is don't be a Raider.
02:45 But I got a, I got a word here.
02:46 A word.
02:48 For all the national pundits coming after AP.
02:55 If your team doesn't like what AP is saying, then shut his mouth.
03:00 Shut it.
03:03 Go whoop him.
03:07 Man, I'm telling you every single day.
03:12 I hope the NFL has their Raiders and the Chiefs opening night.
03:25 Oh, I don't care what, I'm just a fan of football and I want to see that.
03:35 How much would you want to see Chiefs opening up ring ceremony, dropping another Superbowl
03:45 banner first game of the year hosting Raiders.
03:50 Oh, you can't make that stuff up.
03:56 You can't make it up.
03:58 Be classic.
04:01 Absolutely classic.
04:06 The last loss came against the Raiders.
04:08 Now listen, I hear some fans being very disrespectful of the Raiders.
04:15 That's I mean of the Chiefs.
04:17 That's dumb.
04:21 What they've done, have they gotten calls?
04:24 Yep.
04:25 But they still done it.
04:26 They deserve all the respect.
04:28 Patrick Mahomes, best quarterback in football.
04:31 Andy Reid's best coach.
04:33 I'm just telling you, don't disrespect because that's a heck of a franchise.
04:43 Great fan base.
04:45 Good people.
04:46 If you're the Raiders man, just because you show them respect doesn't mean you kiss the
04:52 ring either.
04:57 Make this happen NFL.
04:59 This is a no brainer.
05:03 Raiders Chiefs first game of the 2024 season.
05:08 We just call it the just shut up ball.
05:15 The shut up.
05:19 One team will silence the other.
05:22 But you know that that game is going to be hostile, mobile, agile.
05:26 There's going to be tension.
05:28 I mean, you're going to have Antonio Pierce walking into that stadium, that iconic epic
05:39 stadium all red, having lived six months rent free in the head of Patrick Mahomes.
05:50 I don't care what team you root for.
05:54 Everybody wants to see that game.
05:56 Those ratings will be through the roof.
06:01 Wow.
06:02 Wow.
06:03 Not a lot to cover today.
06:09 I got an email here from Colby V. Colby V. Colby says, Hondo, thanks for all you do.
06:15 Really love your work.
06:17 What do you think the vibe is with Bo Nix for the Raiders?
06:22 Is number 13 too high?
06:24 Is a trade down ideal?
06:26 Is he available later?
06:28 Does that contradict best player available at number 13?
06:33 Interested in your thoughts as a lifelong duck fan, I personally think he'd be great.
06:38 Thank you so much for all that you do.
06:39 Thank you, Colby.
06:41 So let me address this real quick.
06:43 I have talked about Bo Nix a lot and have gotten a lot of criticism for it.
06:51 And I've got some permission.
06:53 I'm going to read a scouting report from a GM to you that it got texted to me.
06:59 But let me just share this with you.
07:02 Bo Nix did not do good at the post season talent bowl.
07:09 You know, senior bowls, there's several of them, but where you go and you work out and
07:13 all that did not do well.
07:15 And I had fans, what are you talking about?
07:18 Accuracy issues.
07:19 Don't you know how accurate he was in college?
07:22 You know what?
07:23 Nothing says I don't know football better than throwing out stats where you don't watch
07:30 film.
07:33 Bo Nix was outstandingly accurate in college and he's a great kid.
07:41 This is nothing about character, but his technique is not well, his footwork isn't great.
07:50 And the vast majority of his passes are within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.
07:55 Anybody can get the ball there.
07:59 He gets to the post season talent bowls where he's asked to make some longer throws and
08:05 his accuracy was not good.
08:08 He was not good.
08:09 Okay.
08:10 I know there are people that like Bo Nix and I think there is a chance he goes in the first
08:18 round.
08:19 And everybody I know who judges quarterbacks and judges them accurately and well, none
08:25 of them have a first round grade on him at all.
08:28 So when you say, is he possible as the best player at 13?
08:31 No, he's not even close to the top 13 best players.
08:36 Again, great kid.
08:39 Again a kid that who may be with better coaching and better technique can improve to be a QB
08:46 one.
08:47 But you're not guessing in round one.
08:51 Well, you are.
08:52 That's why a traditional group of teams are always at the top of the list because they're
08:55 constantly guessing like the Raiders did with Damon Arnett.
09:02 No Colby.
09:04 Great kid.
09:06 Great career.
09:09 Everybody who even remotely knows the kid loves the kid.
09:14 But it's not just this is what his accuracy was in college.
09:20 It's okay.
09:22 What's the understanding of it?
09:24 You know, JJ McCarthy was tremendously accurate and threw the ball a lot longer, a lot more
09:32 intermediary and long range throws.
09:36 So no, I don't hear him.
09:38 I think somebody, I think there's a chance he could go in the first because there are
09:42 several teams that traditionally draft not well who take those kinds of risks.
09:50 If you can go get Bowen, you know, in later rounds, sure.
09:55 I think he'd be a great pick.
09:56 You got to develop them.
09:57 You got to coach them.
10:01 But no.
10:04 And again, here's what I was told about Bo.
10:08 From an NFL executive that was there.
10:15 Nowhere close to good technique or footwork.
10:19 That'll certainly have to be coached up at the NFL level.
10:23 But with so many throws in college in a very short distance, we saw intermediary and long
10:33 word passing accuracy, nowhere near the accuracy stats of what he had in college.
10:39 I would say of all the QBs was not a good time for him.
10:46 There you go.
10:47 And listen, could he be that?
10:53 So somebody could go pick them and develop them.
10:57 And he turns out great.
10:58 And everyone goes, Oh, should have moved up for Bo Nix.
11:02 But he's a project.
11:04 He's a project.
11:06 And remember, when you're picking guys in the first round, there's a reason the good
11:11 teams are always at the bottom because they know how to draft.
11:16 You don't take risks.
11:20 So there you go.
11:21 Whatever you think school with me.
11:22 I'm just giving you the report because you asked for it, Colby.
11:24 Thanks for sending in your email.
11:26 Remember, you can send me an email Spartan Nation Mail, mail@yahoo.com.
11:31 Let me know what you think.
11:32 If you ever have any emails, some of them I answer in question, answer articles, some
11:35 of the podcasts.
11:36 So get those to me.
11:37 I'd love to hear from it.
11:41 Talk about the salary cap.
11:43 Now you may remember in 2020, I was reporting during the season that the salary cap for
11:50 the first time ever was going to go back.
11:52 It was during COVID and everyone's like, no, Hondo's wrong.
11:56 And I think goes back, it may go back a million bucks.
12:00 And I begin to tell people that I was hearing it could probably go back 10 million.
12:08 And then we find out it ended up going back over 15 million.
12:14 Those are huge numbers.
12:16 Now the salary cap was just announced by the NFL.
12:20 It goes up to $255.4 million.
12:29 Raiders are in great shape.
12:33 Great shape.
12:36 Throw on some of that Jimmy G money, like some old spice.
12:47 Raiders are in good shape.
12:48 And y'all need to give Dave Ziegler credit for that.
12:51 He came in and fixed the Raiders, bit the bullet and did what he needed to do.
12:56 So good job for Dave.
12:59 And now the Raiders are in great shape, great shape to do a lot of different things.
13:05 So that's salary cap.
13:06 That is a huge deal going up.
13:08 And again, it goes up 30 in 2023, it was 224 million.
13:21 And so it went up 31, almost over $30 million.
13:30 The Raiders are in tremendous shape, tremendous shape financially now.
13:39 Got a lot of room to do a lot.
13:42 I want to talk about the staff because I said I was going to.
13:45 Several things stuck out to me.
13:47 AP had multiple people with playing experience.
13:50 Big deal.
13:52 Joe Philbin, Marvin Lewis, two former coaches on his staff, head coaches.
14:01 Guys been there, done that.
14:03 And one on each side of the ball.
14:07 That's a huge deal.
14:09 I love that you see Deuce Gruden still around.
14:14 That tells you AP's not leading from a place of fear, which isn't him anyways.
14:21 He keeps Deuce around.
14:24 I love that.
14:25 And then I love though that he brings his son, DeAndre, on staff.
14:33 I'm not a fan if it's nepotism of the untalented, but I am a huge fan of nepotism for the talented.
14:42 You'd think knowing AP the way I do and the way you should at least have an idea who he
14:49 is, you'd think for one second his kid's going to come in and loaf around and show up ten
14:54 minutes late because he's the coach's kid.
14:56 No, he's going to be early because he knows dad's holding me to a standard nobody else
15:02 getting held to.
15:03 And DeAndre's a great kid by the way.
15:05 Great kid.
15:08 And I know I shouldn't call him a kid.
15:09 He's a coach in the NFL now, but when you're old like me, you can call him a kid.
15:12 He is a kid.
15:13 Great.
15:14 And with a really promising future.
15:16 He's got a mind.
15:19 It's got an incredible mind.
15:22 I love that.
15:23 I love the way AP filled out his staff with experience.
15:27 Then he listened to his guys.
15:29 Let them bring in some of their people.
15:33 Let them bring in some of their folks knowing, hey, you want me to make some dinner here?
15:37 Let me, let me pick my sous chefs.
15:41 Let me get the guys that are going to help me.
15:44 He listened to me.
15:46 This staff was, I'll give you an example.
15:51 I'm going to go to politics, but I'm not going to talk Republican or Democrat.
15:56 You can always tell what a candidate thinks of their chances of winning the general election
16:03 when they pick their running mate.
16:07 Do they pick a running mate because they think it's going to help me in a certain part of
16:13 the country?
16:15 Is it going to help me with a certain gender group?
16:18 Is it going to help me with a certain racial group?
16:20 Is it going to help me with a certain socioeconomic group?
16:24 Is it going to help me with a special interest group?
16:28 Maybe the candidate is a strong person of faith, so they want to go with somebody who
16:33 isn't, or maybe they aren't, but they want somebody who is.
16:36 Whatever, maybe they're from the Northeast.
16:38 They want somebody from the West.
16:40 I don't know.
16:42 But you can always tell, are they making a decision for governance?
16:47 Meaning, hey, this person will really be a good candidate if something should happen
16:53 to me.
16:55 Or do they make a pick based on hoping to bring this particular group in, a religious
17:01 group, a gender, a part of the country?
17:06 Anytime somebody makes a pick of whatever party, anytime they make a pick of somebody,
17:15 not because they could be a good president, but because of what they can bring to them,
17:23 that's not good.
17:27 That's not good at all.
17:32 Because you want them picking somebody who can be a good president.
17:40 That's what you want.
17:46 You want them to pick.
17:47 I don't want whoever I vote for to pick somebody just because they think it's going to get
17:50 me my vote, because that tells me you're panicked and you don't think you're going to win the
17:56 election.
17:57 I want you to go pick somebody based on if something happens to you, look it, this person's
18:02 capable to be president and talented and smart.
18:09 Here's what I'm saying is AP didn't pick a staff to win a news conference.
18:18 He picked a staff to win and he addressed all of his weaknesses or all of at least the
18:26 perceived weaknesses.
18:28 He's got a game management guy, which we've been talking about for months before he even
18:33 got the job.
18:36 He goes, what else did he do?
18:40 He goes in and grabs experienced guys because he's not as experienced.
18:52 He gets some young guys to bring in some fresh blood and he gets a ton of experience on his
19:00 staff.
19:01 When I saw the staff, the building out the way it was being built out, I immediately
19:07 thought of a presidential election.
19:09 This is not going to go get guys to win a press conference or to get a few people to
19:14 say, oh, good job, AP.
19:15 No, no, no, no, no.
19:16 This was a staff built for winning.
19:22 There were a lot sexier names you could have put on that staff.
19:30 I don't believe there was a lot better names you could have put on there for coaching and
19:36 for what AP needed.
19:38 Brilliant, brilliant move.
19:42 I give him again, he continues everything he has done since becoming the interim and
19:48 now the head coach is an A.
19:52 Brilliant hiring of a staff.
19:53 I love the fact he brought his son in.
19:54 He's young.
19:58 You want some of that in your staff, but it also sends a message.
20:02 In today's world, a lot of coaches just almost abandon their families.
20:07 He's saying, no, listen, my family is still the most important thing in my life.
20:13 I'm glad I got this job.
20:14 It's my dream job.
20:15 It's going to take me a lot of time, but I get to do it with my boy next to me.
20:19 Good for him.
20:20 I get to have my son right here.
20:23 Good for him.
20:25 I thought it was great.
20:28 Again if it was nepotism because of nepotism, no, this was nepotism based on talent.
20:38 He would have picked Rex Ryan to come be part of his staff.
20:41 Would you call it nepotism because Rob's there?
20:43 No, they're both great coaches.
20:46 I have no issue with it.
20:48 It was like when Kyle Shanahan's dad, I cannot believe I just forgot his name because I know
21:04 who he is obviously, but when Kyle Shanahan worked for his dad, Kyle was a great talent.
21:13 Was it nepotism?
21:16 Was it nepotism at all?
21:19 He was a great coach and it worked.
21:23 Same way here.
21:24 I don't know what DeAndre is going to be, but I know what he's shown and a chance to
21:28 work with his dad.
21:29 That's pretty darn special.
21:30 Now, I want to get into a couple other things.
21:34 I am hearing in the NFL that this is a draft with plenty of talent, plenty of first round
21:46 talent in a lot of positions, but I am hearing and now others are reporting the same thing.
21:52 So they're here must be talking to the same people.
21:55 There are four positions where I've had multiple teams tell me they don't think there's a first
22:01 round player.
22:02 Interior offensive lineman, right guard, linebacker and safety.
22:08 Those are the four positions I'm hearing that there's talent there, but not first round
22:12 level talent.
22:15 So I'm just giving you that little bit of information again, interior offensive lineman,
22:19 running back, linebacker and safety.
22:25 So you should be able to address those in the second and third round and get some really,
22:31 really talented guys.
22:32 I just don't expect anyone to see that any of them in the first round.
22:35 Now here's the problem.
22:36 It is a very top heavy draft and when you're going to have people reaching primarily for
22:46 quarterbacks in this draft, it's going to make them fall down even farther.
22:51 The Raiders are in a primo spot, primo spot at 13 to either select the best player position
23:01 of need there or to trade down even a little bit farther and get two players.
23:15 If they trade down and get a first and a second, they could end up walking two players for
23:22 the price of one that start immediately or start at some point next year.
23:26 So big, big, big developments there.
23:31 And I've been getting asked a lot, you know, who are some guys I'm looking forward to talking
23:36 to this week at the combine?
23:37 JC, I mean, there's lots of guys I want to talk to.
23:42 I'm not going to specifically talk about all of them, but I'm going to tell you as I keep
23:46 looking at 13 and I think the odds are going up, the Raiders are going to use 13.
23:56 Boulay-McKinstry, Terry and Arnold, JC Latham.
24:04 Latham's the best right tackle in this draft.
24:07 He will step in immediately and start.
24:11 Now if you re-sign Jermaine Illuminor, who's one of the best offensive linemen out there
24:17 in free agency, then you allow Latham to come in and work his way into that role.
24:24 But I think there's a good chance Jermaine will get a couple of year deal.
24:29 And if the Raiders go with, plan is to go with Latham, I don't know that they would
24:34 give him more than a one year deal.
24:36 And quite frankly, I think he should have got a two year deal last time.
24:40 So you got Colton Miller and JC, and you got to just look at what do you want to do.
24:54 Do you let Andre James go?
24:57 I mean, not try to bring him back?
25:01 Do you move Dylan Parr into center?
25:06 What about Brian Allen?
25:08 LA Ram Center just let go, who performed at a very high level, but he's making a lot of
25:14 money.
25:16 What about Brian Allen?
25:19 He's an option and a good one.
25:24 So a lot of variations here.
25:28 Lot of really, really good things here.
25:35 Just trying to make you aware of it and what's going on.
25:38 But again, running back, interior offensive lineman, linebacker safety, those are the
25:44 weak places.
25:45 So when you've got 22 positions at the 22 main spots, and you're taking four out, now
25:53 you've got 18 spots in that first round.
25:56 And you know there's going to be reaches at quarterback.
26:01 There's going to be a lot of first round talent.
26:03 I was told by someone yesterday that they think someone who is involved in a front office
26:11 of an AFC team, they think there's going to be first round level talent going well deep
26:18 into the second round.
26:20 And so they had told me if I was the Raiders and I could trade back and get a second and
26:25 another first this year from a team that wants to get to 13 for somebody specifically, they
26:31 go, "I'm taking that deal all day long because there's going to be first round talent that
26:35 goes down to the second."
26:39 I thought that was fascinating.
26:40 I wanted to present it to you.
26:43 So the Raiders could trade down from 13 and get into the 20s and get a team second round
26:51 pick and get potentially two guys of first round value.
26:54 That's a huge deal.
26:55 It's a huge deal because there's going to be a lot of reaches.
27:00 Just keep that out there.
27:01 I just wanted to keep it real and give that to you.
27:03 I thought that you would appreciate it greatly.
27:05 So again, a lot going on this week.
27:08 We're going to be talking to tons of people starting tomorrow.
27:12 So please make sure you are checking us out.
27:17 SI.com/NFL/Raiders.
27:21 We're going to have lots of video interviews.
27:23 We're going to be talking to AP.
27:25 We're going to be talking to Tom Telesco a couple of times probably.
27:34 But we're looking forward to getting a bunch of stuff for you guys.
27:38 We're going to be interviewing a bunch of players, articles on a bunch of players.
27:43 I'm going to be there.
27:44 Aiden O'Connell's going to be there.
27:47 Carter Landis is going to be there.
27:48 And Braden Reidy's going to be there.
27:50 So four of us from this staff are going to be there covering all of it.
27:55 So if you want to know what's going on with the combine, you got to just keep clicking
27:58 my ex, formerly known as Twitter @HondoCarpenter, IG @HondoSR, and SI.com/NFL/Raiders.
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28:22 It's going to be a great week at the combine.
28:24 Thank you all.
28:25 And again, thanks for our growth, which has been outstanding.
28:30 Thank you for liking, sharing, and following.
28:32 And I ask you to please keep doing that.
28:34 Again, like, share, follow, get on all that.
28:37 We appreciate all you guys.
28:39 From all of us here, thanks for listening.
28:41 Have a great day.
28:42 See you tomorrow from the combine.