Indianapolis Colts quarterback Matt Ryan (2) scores a touchdown during an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022.
Friday, Nov. 18, 2022 | 2 a.m.
More on the Raiders
On one side of the Raiders’ locker room after the team’s first practice since dropping a third consecutive loss, running back Josh Jacobs talked about a need for more energy on gameday. On the other, across the large untouched shield logo painted on the floor — walking over it is a cardinal sin — linebacker Denzel Perryman suggested the polar opposite prescription to cure the team’s struggles.
He said the Raiders “just need to breathe” and calm down.
Disconnects are all over the Raiders’ organization at the moment after the team’s 2-7 start to the year, and they’re not all as subtle or harmless as trying to interpret the gameday temperament.
In news conferences, quarterback Derek Carr has avoided calling out anyone specifically but repeatedly intimated that not everyone on the roster is fully bought in. And then when it’s coach Josh McDaniels’ turn behind the same lectern, he pleads ignorance and denies any such problem.
“You see us out there fighting, grinding and playing hard and we’re right there at the end of the game,” McDaniels said this week. “I don’t have any issue with the effort or competition that I saw on the field.”
Whether intentional or inadvertent differences in opinions, and whether they're combative or cordial in nature, the Raiders outwardly appear to be surrounded by rifts spreading larger with each successive defeat. Until they start to repair them on the field, a process they’ll attempt again at 1:05 p.m. Sunday in a Week 11 kickoff at Denver, things are going to continue to get worse.
It’s a cruel irony that a team that thrived last year because of an ability to stay together no matter what seismic circumstances threatened to halt them has cratered this season in large part because of an inability to jell.
“It’s just frustrating that...” Perryman started a thought before pausing. “I’m not saying we’re not on the same page, it’s just guys need to do a little more.”
Carr has consistently called on teammates to do more after almost every loss. He made his sternest and most emotional ploy yet after a 25-20 setback to the Colts on Sunday, saying he wished “everyone in (the locker room) felt the same way about this place” in between tears.
But three days later, he respectfully requested not to be asked about it anymore as he was doing “his best just to move onto the next game.” A couple of team meetings sans coaches where he spoke in addition to the speeches by the likes of Perryman, Jacobs and wide receiver Davante Adams assuaged his concerns.
“Certain things were said, addressed and handled like men,” Carr said. “I’m proud of the way we handled it honestly.”
Las Vegas is caught in a vicious rinse-and-repeat cycle with this type of approach though. Carr said he was embarrassed after a 24-0 loss in New Orleans, but then pleased a few days later with the way the team took accountability.
After that optimism didn’t yield any results in the following 27-20 loss at Jacksonville, Carr and Adams referenced issues that needed to be addressed internally. But they later downplayed it during the next week of practice, one Jacobs said was the best team had this season.
It was all once again to no avail leading up to the Colts’ loss that brought another new low.
“I understand the short-term frustration,” McDaniels said. “I get it, I really do. But we’re going to keep trying to work every week to win. At the same time, we’re going to have one eye on what we need to do going forward to try to make this place a sustainable winner.”
Translation: McDaniels might be more committed to a rebuild — even though he criticized that particular word — than anything else for the rest of this season. And while that type of messaging might be smart for his job security, it’s going to make it harder for the Raiders to fix their camaraderie crisis.
The coach’s future might be relatively secure, but Carr’s is not in any way. As for Adams, his arrival this offseason expressly signaled that the Raiders weren’t thinking about a rebuild in the slightest. He left one of the NFL’s most successful franchises to try to recreate and top it elsewhere on his own terms and can’t imagine not “at least trying to finish the right way.”
Jacobs and Perryman are on the last year of their respective deals and trying to secure their futures, whether in Las Vegas or elsewhere. And that's just a small sampling of the diverse motivations for some of the Raiders' biggest-name players; the list could go on.
These conflicting personal objectives are a factor for every NFL team in every NFL season, but the best groups put them aside to work towards a common goal.
Last year’s Raiders under interim coach Rich Bisaccia showed an innate ability to do just that with the team’s collective bond becoming the driving force of the season. This year’s McDaniels-led Raiders may have talked about it just as much but haven’t been able to develop a fraction of the same togetherness, and it’s torn apart their season.
“Our expectation was so high because of what we went through,” Carr said. “We’re human, we experienced that…And so, our expectation will never change. As a human, yeah, there’s frustration but there’s no belief that we can’t do it or we can’t get it right.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or
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