This offseason has been challenging for every team in the NFL and the players transitioning from college, but the Las Vegas Raiders have their own unique circumstances they're trying to figure out.
It might not seem like a big deal, but practice conditions play an important role in a team's training, and for the first time a majority of the Raiders' players will have to adjust to 100-degree heat. If and when players are given the green light to return to facilities across the country, the Raiders would be practicing during the hottest time of the year in Las Vegas.
To combat the heat exposure, General Manager Mike Mayock and Head Coach Jon Gruden have been reaching out to various coaches to inquire about the best ways to conduct practice.
"We've had some conversations with people who have coached [in Vegas] before, like Tony Sanchez who was at UNLV, and just asked about what time we have to be done practicing, or what can we do outside?" Mayock said during an interview with ESPN Las Vegas. "The advantage we have, as opposed to UNLV, is that we have the grass fields outside, we have the indoor climate-controlled filed, and we have a stadium.
"So, we really have three different places that we can rotate through, and based on what we heard, if we're going to be outside, we probably have to be done by 10, 10:30 in the morning in July and August. I think we can figure that out because we have three different surfaces to practice on, but the harder part is we don't even know what the deal is with training camp and the acclimation period."
There's still a lot that needs to be figured out before players can return to practice, but we'll have to monitor that as the days go by. For now, numerous Raiders are training individually in preparation for their eventual return to the gridiron.
