The Raiders spent their offseason chasing one thing above all else: real improvement. And if the early returns are any indication, Las Vegas has done a lot more than patch a few holes. The roster looks better, the coaching staff looks sharper, and the quarterback room - long the team’s biggest problem - has been overhauled in a major way.
That work started with the hire of Klint Kubiak to run the offense, a move that gave the Raiders the offensive-minded head coach they were looking for. From there, the front office kept pushing, adding two quarterbacks, multiple wide receivers and offensive linemen, and continuing to reshape a unit that has lagged behind in recent seasons.
The biggest change came under center, where the Raiders have struggled for years to find stability. Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza joined a quarterback group that had been near the bottom of the league recently, and assistant head coach Mike McCoy said the staff has been drilling the details that matter most at that position.
“I think the great thing the way Klint [Kubiak], Andrew [Janocko], and the entire offensive staff are teaching this offense to the offense about the anticipation, the footwork, if it's one hitch, if it's two hitch, where you're going with the ball, and then they’re sticklers on it. They are on it every single play. They're always talking about the mechanics of everything,” McCoy said.
He also pointed to the learning curve that comes with playing quarterback at this level.
“But I think the biggest adjustment, or one of the biggest adjustments besides the speed, is just the anticipation you have to play with at this level, because what is open in this league, you have got to understand that. A tight window that's open, and you got to anticipate the ball placement and certain things."
McCoy used Aidan O’Connell and Cousins as examples of the finer points the staff is stressing.
“Aidan's [O’Connell] a great example down there, and Kirk [Cousins], you look at also, like in the red area, the way you throw the ball on the goal line versus the back end line, low on the front, high on the back, those little things that make a difference at this level you've got to learn.”
Offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko echoed that same theme, saying the Raiders are building the offense from the ground up by starting with the details.
"That goes back a long way, that something we believe in whether it started with the quarterback position, but it really is everything about our offense that we build ourselves, we build our brains, and then we build ourselves from the ground up,” Janocko said.
“So, if you're listening to your feet, whether you're a quarterback and you're progressing on time within your footwork, or you're an offensive lineman and you're gaining ground on your first step, or a receiver, and how are my feet helping to contribute to my route depth? All those things, are we gaining ground on our first step in the wide zone? So everything, our building blocks start there."
The Raiders have clearly made progress, and the sense around the team is that everyone is pulling in the same direction more than they have in a while. That kind of alignment has been missing in Las Vegas, and it should help speed up the rebuild.
Still, the real test is ahead. Training camp will show whether the improvement holds once the pads come on, and Kubiak made it clear that nothing is settled yet.
"We're an improved team. Our guys have taken the coaching.
They're doing everything we ask them to do. I definitely see an improvement from where we started, and this time of year, you can kind of get lulled to sleep when the pads aren't on.
So, what team that we're going to become, we'll find out come training camp when we put pads on," Kubiak said following mandatory minicamp.
For now, the Raiders can point to an offseason that has been their most productive in years. They have a better quarterback group, a better roster overall, and a coaching staff that appears locked in on fixing the problems that have held them back. The next few weeks will tell the rest of the story.
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