[0:01]Training camp's over now. I'm just curious what is something that you're leaving this camp with that you think this team is farther ahead than where you thought they would be, please? Yeah, well, we we have, we have good leadership, you know, on on both sides of the ball. Um, so, you know, with Max, um, you know, Max has been excellent throughout, the way he plays, uh, the way he talks to the team. Um, I think there's there's leaders that are building on the offensive side of the ball. So, um, you know, I like where we're at. Hey coach, do you believe that Mike Washington stepped up in his role with the ones today? I think he just kept, he kept playing like he practices, you know, he's he's been consistent. Uh, he's an improving player that, uh, you know, he's got a lot of good football ahead of him and we just got to, you know, keep getting the best out of him every day. What did you make of Fernando's play tonight and just the body of work he put out there during preseason play? Yeah, you know, overall offensively, we didn't we didn't score at all. So we didn't help the team uh get victories. You know, I think, uh, you know, he has a pick, but I think it was a drop ball, you know, we have a couple sacks. So plenty that I can do better for him as well. What what do you think you learned like facing such a a pass rush like that? Well, you know, uh, that's the NFL, you know, and uh every week it's going to be that, it's going to be it's going to be, uh, it's going to be just like Max is practicing against us every day, you know, that's that's the NFL. So, uh, you know, offensively, we got to find a better way to get points on the board. Uh Jackson Powers Johnson started at right guard and then didn't really play in the second half. Has he kind of wrapped up the the starting right guard role? No, I wouldn't say that. Again, we got we got more decisions to make and and Jackson and Caleb have had a great battle and both those guys are going to play this year. After a game like this, what do you think is the biggest thing that you can take this game to evaluate the team moving forward? What do you look for in games like this, you know, when guys are fighting for jobs? Yeah, the special teams reps are so important, you know, those are those are critical. I thought overall, you know, guys had a better job with penalties. I played, uh, played much better technically tonight. But yeah, you're just trying to see those bottom of the roster guys, you know, um, how much value can they add to your team, so look forward to watching the special teams film. Clint, you had to challenge your wide receivers this week to step it up a little bit. From at first glance, do you feel like they did that today or what was your assessment of the wide receiver? Yeah, you know, we didn't score. So, receivers, running backs, tight ends, uh, all around, we got to we got to find ways to get the ball in the end zone. Hey coach, what words could you say about Matt G's performance and also, um, was it your decision to not have Mazza play today? Yes, it was. Matt did a great job four for five, you know, missed a long one. Um, but I was pleased with Matt, pleased with his whole training camp. Hey Clint, uh, over here. When it comes to Fernando and his performance, how important is it for him to have a a an outing like that in in terms of getting his development going? Yeah, I mean, he he needs another three preseason games, you know, all those rookies do. And, uh, now that the season's starting, you know, that, you know, the the practice reps get smaller and that's just that's just life. But, um, us as coaches, we got to get him ready to play, keep developing him. Clint, what did you make of how the defense performed on third down tonight? I I Rob Leonard said that that was a a focus going into the week. Yeah, you know, Rob, the whole staff did a great job. The guys played hard. You know, I'm not sure if they converted one in the first half. I don't remember, but, um, defense came out fired and they played a great game. Would you say the extended time at practice on special teams showed up today? Uh, again, you know, that that was just our in-season schedule. So, um, I thought the discipline improved.
[3:38]Clint, can a night like tonight for someone like Fernando that watches the film and internalize it actually just a rookie preseason be a blessing in his learning curve? Yeah, it is. It is. It's it's his reps, it's learning from from Kirk's reps, from Aiden's reps, you know, uh, very valuable for him to get all those reps. You know, I wish he I'd love to play him the whole game. Um, but, you know, there's other guys that we want to get looked at and and, but I thought overall this preseason that, you know, we got him plenty of time and and I'm I'm happy where he's at, but we just got to keep pushing him to be better. Uh Clint, uh we saw Trayzo play a little bit at center, uh tonight. Just wondering how would you describe his growth playing at that particular position. Yeah, you know, how impressive it is for a guy to play tackle, to play center, to play guard for us. Uh, there's there's a lot of things that he does really well. Um, very versatile player, great teammate, excited about his future. What do you anticipate these next 68ish hours being like for you? Uh, yeah, it's not going to be fun. Hard decisions. Uh, guys that have been working their tails off with us since April that aren't going to get to be here. Um, you know, that's part of the NFL. Would you talk about Trey Zoo's mental acumen to literally change, he can change spots from one rep to another, just that ability to process that quickly, please? Uh, it's I've never been around a guy that that can do what he does from rep to rep. So we just got to keep getting him better physically, but he has a, you know, he has a special trait upstairs. Would you say you're proud of that, um, young defense? You know, yes, it was a loss and, um, you know, but they didn't let them get into the end zone and it was they only let up field goals. Oh, yeah, absolutely. They were they had us in the game the whole time. All right. Thanks, coach. Thanks, guys. Thanks Clint.
[5:30]Yeah, I'll just uh start off and then I'll kick it to you then, um, uh, yeah, I thought it was good to get out there again, get the the experience, the reps. There's nothing like game experience. Um, uh, it's good to be with the O line, substituting, looking guys in the eye in the huddle, you know, having to overcome penalties, convert third downs, all that stuff. So Clint did another great job of getting the plays in quickly, felt like we were never up against the play clock. That was a good procedural thing that went well. Um, really impressed with Tyler Linderbaum, the way he plays, competes and kind of elevates everybody. Um, um, you know, it was pleased with with a lot of the effort that how he ran the ball really well. Um, good to sustain drives, good to overcome a a holding penalty, first and 20. So, a lot of positives, just want to finish with touchdowns instead of field goals and, um, would have loved to have converted that last third down to keep that drive going and, uh, um, take any questions you have. Kirk, you did have three three possessions in preseason. They all ended in points. I know you mentioned you want to trade field goal for touchdowns, but is that progress to you with the first team offense being able to at least put points on the board in your three drives? Yeah, we can talk about the positives, we can talk about like you said, come away with points, converting third downs, running the football well. Um, avoiding penalties, protecting the football. All positives. I could also sit here and talk about, you know, some of the meat we left on the bone and, um, some of the plays that, you know, we could have made or should have made or reads I should have made. So, um, certainly some positives. Kirk, what's impressed you about Mike Washington in practice, in preseason? Yeah, he runs hard, runs hard, fast, um, tough player, um, football's important to him. And, um, you know, he's a young player, so there's going to be moments where you say, yeah, he's not a fifth fifth year player that has seen it all and done it all. And I think that's where myself and others, we have to come alongside him and help him and and enable him to, um, you know, start to feel comfortable early on, even though he he doesn't have a lot of reason to feel comfortable. I want to do everything I can to make him feel comfortable there and he did a nice job tonight running the football. Kirk Spencer Burford doesn't get a lot of attention, but he's just come in as a free agent and been a rock solid guy. Would you talk about him as a man and a player, what's impressed you about him as your left guard? Yeah, he's played a lot of meaningful football in this league. Um, he's a pro, he's competitive in practice every day and, um, he stays steady and, um, you know, we're going to ask a lot of him this year. Guards in this league have a tough job. They're going up against some some real creatures rushing the passer. So, he's he's got a a tough gig, but again, tonight the O line did a nice job running the football and also with pockets, I thought I had a great pocket, uh, for our two drives. How would you evaluate your progress in the beginning of training camp till now? I think it's every day just trying to find continued improvement. Um, you know, you're never a finished product. You're always looking for ways to be better, um, and to continue, you know, in your fundamentals and owning the game plan and the and the uh and and how you operate in that plan. So, it's a progress, but I think it's been a productive training camp, productive preseason, but, um, as, you know, Tom Brady when he spoke to us, one of the many good things he said to us was, hey, everybody has training camp, everybody has preseason games. So to think that you're somehow getting ahead of everybody else just because you went out to practice and practiced, there is no edge there in the sense that everybody else is doing that too. You've got to find your edge within those practices or post practice or in the, you know, the way you relate to one another. So there's there's ways we got to find edges, but it's not just showing up to practice and doing your job because everybody's doing that. You've talked about a few of them already. What have you seen running with the ones that could make this O line special? What about it could make it special over the course of a year? Yeah, I think it starts with our scheme. I have great respect for Clint and Rick Dennison and Mario and the gang just putting together the run plan each week and the way they teach the fundamentals. Great respect for Tyler, Spencer, Colton, I mean, we named all those guys, DJ, um, JPJ, Caleb. So, just the way they go about their work every day and, um, the way they they grind through it mentally, physically. Um, but it's one day at a time, one week at a time and we'll see where we're standing at the end. Kirk, um, Clint hasn't announced a quarterback yet or made that official. As a veteran player, A, do you, can you understand kind of that approach, uh, that that he's, uh, approaching this with and and B, do you feel like you've done enough to win the starting job? Yeah, I think it's just up to coach. You just do the best you can with the opportunities you're given, lead as well as you can, compete and, um, and you're never a finished product. And so, you know, naming something one day can change the next day. So you just go about your business each day methodically and, um, and, uh, I look forward to, you know, those times, you know, a lot of times it's Wednesday and Thursday and Friday post practice when it's just us in there and we're able to kind of talk through things and, um, you know, we'll have a lot of those meetings up ahead. Uh, spent the most year, I mean, I know it was a ways back, but spent most of your rookie season on the sideline. What were you able to learn from that vantage point and that perspective? Well, I think you learn so much about how this league operates, how the season operates, how defenses will play you and situational football, um, how you prepare for the game each week, how you recover from a game, um, what it takes to really own a game plan over the course of six days to really get it locked in. So, there's a lot that, um, for me was a big jump from college to the pros and, uh, it took some time. But, um, there's other guys like Robert Griffin, who I backed up, who they were ready to go and had a great rookie year, one rookie of the year. So, um, you know, I've seen it I've seen it a lot of different ways and, uh, um, you know, I think there's it's all about the the long game, you know, winning the long game. And that's what I think we all want to do. As a a guy who has experienced playing for Clint as a quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator, how do you feel he handled his first training camp preseason as a head coach? You know, my my message to him after OTA's, I kind of sent him a little one-page summary of some of my thoughts and first sentence I had was coach, this was the most urgent and efficient OTA's I've ever been a part of. And I felt that continued in training camp. Um, I just the word I would use is urgency. I felt urgency preparing for this game. I even felt urgency in this game. Um, that that starts with your head coach. It it certainly trickles down through the coaching staff and through your team, but it starts with the tone that Clint sets. And, um, I felt it from the first day I arrived in the building in April. And, uh, that's just the way Clint's wired and I think the way Tom Brady's wired and I think that urgency then kind of, uh, infiltrates the whole building. But, um, it's certainly a something you got to have in this league, I think to be successful. You got to have urgency and efficiency in how you go about your business. Guys, all set? Okay, thank you. Kirk, appreciate it.
[12:19]What do you what do you take away from when you face the pass rush like you faced tonight? Believe the pass rush was fantastic tonight and I think it's a great experience. I think our offensive line did fantastic as well, but I think it's also a great experience of it's the NFL. There's they like it or not, there are, you know, monsters at the other side of the ball, and you need to get the ball out quick and it teaches you that you need to play on time and there's less margin for errors. So I think it's a great experience having that heat and dress because diamonds are built under pressure. They're built under fire and, you know, being forged like that. So when you're able to play under that dress, that's when you're able to elevate your game and I think it's a good experience. Fernando, your dream for most of your life has been to be a pro football quarterback. And so now that your first camp's over, what did you learn about the NFL that you didn't know? The NFL is really tough, you know, and, uh, there is a big jump going from college to the NFL and the speed and and there's so many different aspects. And the NFL is a tough business and it's a challenge I look forward to taking head on with my teammates. And I'm excited for the future and that was my dream as a young kid. And then now I have goals in the future that hopefully that us as a team we can accomplish. It's to best serve their teammates and best serve the silver and black. Clint said because of the the development and the progression, he wouldn't mind if you had three more preseason games to get your feet under the fire. Would you like three more preseason games? I would love unlimited games for development and, you know, evidently there is toll that takes on the body, but my body feels great and however I need to, you know, respect my other teammates who are laying their body out on the line every single play like I try to do. It's sometimes a little bit more situational in my position, but the more reps and the more games would be fantastic. If there were three more preseason games that I could do, I would do them. Fernando, you've obviously been a high achiever, but it always hasn't always been easy for you throughout your various stops. Um, some of those struggles early on in your career. Do you feel like you could draw on those experience in in the understanding that just stick with it because it always works out even when there's struggles like tonight and in the last game? Yeah, I think that's a great point that there are always struggles. It's not always sunshines and rainbows. When you're able to stick with it through an optimistic mindset and have a great community and a great team and great coaches around you. If you stick to it and keep on pushing forward, then at the end there's bound to be successful results and positive results. But sometimes it's tough to see that far in advance, but when you have great teammates and coaches guiding you, such as a young player, that's something that I'm very blessed to have. Hey Fernando, what'd you see on the interception? Anything you wish you would have done differently on that play? I've yet to watch the film. It's a little different because when you're on the sideline, you get the four pictures. And so I look forward to watching the film, looking forward to learning and growing. And yeah, Fernando, uh, your first preseason in the books in the NFL, what have you learned about yourself not just as a player, but as a person as well?
[15:47]It's been a lot to learn this preseason and I've learned. I've learned so much from that from the veterans and then also the other rookies in our locker room, especially such a fantastic opportunity to grow through the highs and lows of training camp of the preseason. And I'm really evidently, we take every day as its own day, but, you know, I I would say that is it's been a pleasure. I've grown a lot this preseason and, like I said before, if there are three more preseason games, I would play them. And and yeah, I thought I think from snap one of Arizona to the last snap I took here against the Niners. I believe I've grown as a quarterback. Although it might not always, you know, shown the stat sheet. Fernando, Clint mentioned that other teams in the NFL have creatures that are attacking quarterbacks. You used the term monsters. So, what does it mean to you in your development to be able to compete against Max Crosby every day? The terms, I'm that Coach Kubiak used of creatures and the term I use monsters is not meant in any derogatory way. It's meant in actually a positive, more complimentary way. And so to be able to compete with such fierce competitors such as Max and such as the other great edges around the league and be able to be a teammate with Max has been so helpful and look forward to going against him in practice and competing because at the because iron sharpens iron and when you're able to go against not just iron, but he's like a diamond. It's it's a it's a fantastic experience and it gets when he's one of the top, if not the top pass rusher in the league, when you then get to play against it, it gets you ready for that moment. Hi Fernando, there was a lot of Raiders alumni in the building today and before we got to talk to them and I asked Marcus Allen and Jim Plunkett about you and their belief in you and they had really great things to say and they believe that you do have that it factor that could help turn this franchise around. To hear that from Raiders greats, what does that mean to you?
[17:54]It means the world. The Raiders alumni is so important to this organization and the Raiders legends, being I feel blessed that they recognize us rookies and, you know, they whenever whenever I've texted them in the past, they've always it's always been an open line of communication and support and, you know, advice and tips. So I'm I'm so grateful to have them in the Raider's corner and and in my corner, my development and looking forward to utilizing those relationships to grow. And those are two legends you said there and I'm just I'm very honored. Hey Fernando, you talked recently about needing to be more tranquilo when you're out there on the field, a little more calm. But but on that run, when you had the spin move, is that just second nature to you or is there something you're seeing when you take off and run that way cuz it's just like in the national championship game. You prepare all week and something that I've learned from coaches and the other quarterbacks in our room, that you prepare all week, you put in the countless hours of film, self-study and all that external other preparation aspects that come with it, and you let your instincts take over in the game. Evidently, you're still very process oriented and, you know, I write tranquilo on my on my wristband to for for a reminder and the reminders of how to go through your process. But when there's a great player, I believe it was CJ West who actually was another Indiana guy. You know, staring staring down at you in the barrel, you you got to make something happen. And so that's that's totally instinctual. Uh Fernando, I was wondering, how would you kind of self-evaluate your your play throughout training camp from, you know, from the beginning to the end?
[19:34]I think that'd be a better question for let's say maybe the coaches. However, I've believe that I've grown through training camp. There's always there's been highs and there's been lows. And it but I believe that from the first day of training camp to now, I've accidentally been a better quarterback. Although it might not seem like it on paper because in the or, you know, maybe not something from the outside expectation just because, you know, there's been so many so many, I've been blessed with so many great experiences in the past year. But, you know, I believe that the high I'm very grateful for the highs and lows of training camp and I believe I've grown a lot as a player because of the great coaches, great teammates and great organization I'm a part of. Kirk, uh, got some game action again after not playing in the Texans game. What do you see from him and how he's able to operate this offense? Kirk looks great. He looks ruthlessly efficient. And with that, he's able to drive the ball down the field. I believe he had two drives with two scores. And that's something that I want to model and I want to put the ball in the end zone or help our team put it through the uprights. Just wrap it up with Sam. Uh Fernando, unrelated anything tonight, but Bishop Gorman, the local powerhouse, going down to Miami this week and to play Christopher Columbus. Um, just wondering what did your experience at Columbus mean to you and how did your time there shape you on and off the field? My time at Christopher Columbus really helped me forge into a man, into a young man. And those experiences are some that have made me the man who I am today. And I'm forever indebted to Columbus and look forward to seeing them take on Bishop Gorman. There's a little bit of ties now that I'm a, you know, Las Vegas resident. And I also went to Christopher Columbus. I'll be rooting for a good game and keep us between us, but I'm rooting for Columbus, but I hope it's a great game. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Fernando. Thank you, guys. God bless.
