While the Raiders' 6-11 season came short of their initial goals, Josh McDaniels and the Raiders will look to build upon the good parts of the 2022 season. Now begins the offseason for the Silver and Black, with hopes of coming back bigger and better for the 2023 season.
Head Coach Josh McDaniels and a few players met with the media on Monday to wrap up the 2022 regular season.
Read through for some of the best quotes from Monday's interviews with McDaniels, Maxx Crosby, Josh Jacobs and Nate Hobbs:
Josh McDaniels
On his self evaluation process as a playcaller and leader:
"I think No. 1 is going back through ... What was I doing? What was I responsible for? How productive was I in my role in terms of the things that I was really responsible for in that regard? I'm obviously responsible for everything, but I think in terms of the individual hats that I try to wear, look at those things and see if they were as productive as we need them to be. I think listening to other people is really important at this time of the year. There's a lot of other people that see me on a daily basis, I think that's true for everybody. That's what I'm going to try to do with our coaches and that's what I'm going to try to do for myself is listen to other people. They give me great feedback; they did all year long."
On progress made in developing a culture and identity of the team:
"I thought that the big key for us is we were honest, and we communicated from the very beginning kind of what we were looking for and what the expectations were. I thought our leaders, our captains in specific, did a tremendous job of really upholding those things and trying to bring everybody else along with them. ... Hopefully as we go into the second season, there's going to be a lot less new in terms of what the expectation is, what the standard is, how we run our operation day-to-day."
On the tone of the team going into offseason:
"I'm optimistic because of what I see day to day. That's what I'm optimistic about. When you sit there and you look at the way that the guys work and their attitude and their mindset, the way they played down the stretch, the way they competed with a number of teams that are really good football teams and good organizations. My optimism stems from the guys that I get to work with every day and our staff and our players and the guys upstairs. I know what they're doing, and I know how hard they're working to try to close the gap on where we need to go. I'm always optimistic about that."
Maxx Crosby
His evaluation of his play this season:
"I feel like I took another big step in the direction I want to go. I talked about this before the season, I want to be a Hall of Famer. I want to be the best in the league and that's how I work and push myself every single day. From a personal standpoint, I'm proud of the body of work I put together, but there's always more I can do. There's always more improvement. So, I'm definitely going back to the drawing board and see what I can do to improve [to] help this team and put us in the best position to win by my individual performance and do a better job as a leader. There's always room for improvement. I just want to be the best version of myself every day I walk into this building."
On the team's struggles in close games:
"At the end of the day, we got to learn how to win as a team. We have to be more consistent. There can't be as many lulls in a game. It can't be a great first half and then a bad second half. It's got to all work together and I feel that just starts with the standard. The standard, it starts in the offseason. It starts in practice, running to the ball, the little details and that's definitely something I feel like we definitely need to address and improve on. ... I feel like Josh [McDaniels] and Dave [Ziegler] are doing a great job and we're going in the right direction."
On his teammates:
"A guy like Chandler Jones – first off, him coming here has been an incredible experience. He's one of the best people I know. Him coming into the locker room, Davante Adams as well. Those two guys I've know will be lifelong friends and I've only known them for 8-9 months. So that just tells you how special those two dudes are. I can go on and on, Josh Jacobs, there's a ton."
Josh Jacobs
On being NFL rushing leader for the season:
"It's a testament to the team and the guys who helped me along the way. That's definitely dope to be able to experience that with them."
On the team moving forward:
"They definitely have the right mindset, especially about the way we go about working. Definitely the best working group I've been around since being in the NFL. It's just about putting the little pieces together right now. Identifying what those little pieces are, identifying what each player's role [is] and trying to execute that to the fullest."
On the biggest positive from the first season under McDaniels:
"These guys take it to another level when it comes to the way they explain things and the way they utilize certain guys. Learning their offensive playbook, learning their terminology and then taking it putting my little spin on it has definitely been fun."
Nate Hobbs
On lessons learned this season:
"The importance of a play is something I learned this year. The importance of any given play and how much weight it holds. I feel like we had so many games where there was maybe three or four plays that determined a game, where we might've won or lost off that play. ... When you look at our record, it doesn't speak to the team that we are."
On his first season with defensive coordinator Patrick Graham:
"I think he brings a lot of variety to the defense. He's a very, very smart man. A Yale graduate on top of him having a football feel. He played in college and has been around [football] guys. He's a people's person and he has a feel for people and the game. But on top of that, he's a very smart guy too. I feel like he can put strategy and scheme together with his football feel."
On the versatility he's brought to the secondary:
"I'm just thankful for the opportunities. Really just thankful for to be able to go from playing nickel to playing corner, back to nickel, back to corner. Because it puts me in certain situations to where I can know what the nickel's doing at the corner spot, I can really know what the linebacker is doing and what the safety is doing. Because at nickel you have to know all of these things and at corner you have to know some of these things too. ... I'm just super blessed to be able to play both positions and really get a feel for them so later in my career I can say, 'I can do that' and play whatever defensive back position that you want. It's a blessing."
