Wide Receiver Michael Crabtree
Following the Oakland Raiders on-field session at their ninth Organized Team Activity [OTA] Wednesday afternoon, wide receiver Michael Crabtree spoke to the media.
Here are the highlights from his time at the podium.
Crabtree believes the addition of several veteran players will only help the young Raiders' nucleus.
"I think we help each other, you know, the young guys helping the old guys, the old guys helping the young guys. That's what a team is. Building a team, building a championship team, like I said, and it's really competitive. It's really [competitive]. The young cornerbacks competing with Sean [Smith]. Me and 'Coop' [Amari Cooper] competing and just building a team and making this team that much better."
**Continuity is key.
**
"I think that's very important in football, having the same coaches, same quarterback, same receivers. We know each other and we're just going to feed off of each other and get better, really just taking that step up from last year."
Crabtree has seen growth from quarterback Derek Carr this offseason.
"I've seen him grow. My first year with him, last year… The guy is amazing. He's got talent. Like I said, we talk all the time on ways to get better on the field and I feel like he has taken that step, taken control of the offense, doing more managing of the game at the end and the beginning. I feel like that gunslinger, he is always going to be a gunslinger and I love that. That's the old Brett Favre-type of quarterback, but really managing Brett Favre. Brett Favre is one of the greatest players to ever play."
This offseason, there has been constant competition among the wide receivers.
"Like I said, me and 'Coop,' Seth Roberts, Andre Holmes, I feel like we compete every day. I give them what I know and those guys teach me about the new day. It's a new day now in the NFL. I just capitalize on it and have fun with it."
He also spoke about the youth camp that he's hosting this weekend in Dallas.
"My camp is in Texas, in Dallas, the Cotton Bowl. The city gave me the Cotton Bowl. There are over like 900 kids coming out for free and I have like 25-30 athletes in the NFL and we're going to have fun out there. It's big because I do the same for everybody else in the eight years I've played. I feel like it's big to give back to those kids. When I was young, I didn't have a camp to go to that was free. Everybody was charging $100, $50. I didn't have that. So for the city of Dallas to give me the Cotton Bowl and show guys what we're doing, it's going to be exciting."
