Raiders HC Josh McDaniels details the next steps in the process after loss to Cowboys
The next few days are hard for every coach in the league. You have wrapped up preseason play, which is great, but now, if you are the Las Vegas Raiders, you must figure out how to cut down a very talented roster.This is one of the more talented 90-man rosters the Raiders have put together […]
The next few days are hard for every coach in the league. You have wrapped up preseason play, which is great, but now, if you are the Las Vegas Raiders, you must figure out how to cut down a very talented roster.
This is one of the more talented 90-man rosters the Raiders have put together in a while. You feel like there is depth everywhere. However, you can't enter the season with 90 players. You have to get it down to 53 by August 29.
Doing this takes a lot of steps. You have to evaluate everyone besides the guys who are a lock to make it, like Josh Jacobs, Jimmy Garoppolo, Davante Adams, and so on.
That is why the preseason is more important than you may think. Some of these guys are fighting for their careers.
"We have a lot of information already," Head Coach Josh McDaniels said following the loss to Dallas. "We'll take stock of what happened tonight, some of the things we were interested to see based on who played, how much they played, and how much they did.
"There's no shortcut to this. We're going to have a lot of discussions tomorrow, Monday, obviously leading into Tuesday. We'll try to do the best thing. Whatever is the best thing for the Raiders today and going forward, that's what we're going to try to do."
One of the toughest decisions for McDaniels will be what he decides to do at the wide receiver position with the last spot. Does he go Phillip Dorsett because of the history, and Dorsett knows the offense? Or does he go with the talent and skill that Kristian Wilkerson possesses and showed throughout the whole preseason, time and time again?
McDaniels will also have to figure out what he is going to do about the depth on the defensive line. That is one of the biggest issues with this team, and they still never really found an answer, especially not the one they were looking for.
"You've been working with 90 guys for a long time," McDaniels said, "and now the time comes where we got to make some decisions. … We've already done a lot of work on that; we've evaluated our team every step of the way."
It's going to be more than interesting to see how the roster, the official 53-man roster for the 2023 season, starts to shape up.
Featured Image Via Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
