Derek Carr, Darren Waller and Maxx Crosby all took questions from the media today for the first time since the fallout of former head coach Jon Gruden’s resignation. Carr, the eighth year starter, is well aware that the Las Vegas Raiders are directly in the eye of the media.
“This is the biggest story in sports right now. And that’s what we talked about, when you turn the TV on, that’s what’s on. You do your best to stay focused when it’s time to focus and all of those kind of things, but again I’m just sad. Sad for the people that were hurt, sad for Coach, sad for the organization, sad for our fans, a lot of those feelings.”
Carr and Gruden worked together in a total of 52 games, Carr was preparing for Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos when he heard the news.
“My wife sent it to me, I read it, and about time I got done reading it, it was over, and he resigned. So you can imagine there was a lot going on in my head. I will probably get more into it someday on how it went down for me.”
Carr would further speak on his feelings towards Gruden.
“I think more than anything, Coach needs people to help him. To love him, in whatever areas that we can. But at the same time, what’s right is right, what’s wrong is wrong.”
To turn focus back onto the AFC West rivalry game that is taking place in Denver on Sunday afternoon, Carr shared that he is familiar with offensive coordinator Greg Olson, who will be calling plays for the remainder of this season. Olson was previously Carr’s play caller in the 2013-2014 season.
Carr has been now through five different head coaches in his eight seasons as a Raider. Once again in such a similar situation, Carr did note that this feels much different.
“I do know the feelings of when it’s a good football team and when it’s not. The feelings of when it is not, you get a lot of guys that are just coming to work, just counting the days kind of a thing. Whereas this team, the way we came in today, everything is still out there for us. We’re a good football team. We believe that.”
Carr and others reiterated the statements general manager Mike Mayock made earlier in the day that the Raiders do still have all of their goals right in front of them. With a 3-2 record, Las Vegas remains only a game out of first place heading into Week 6.
TE Darren Waller spoke to the team in a meeting today and shared his message to the media.
“In times of uncertainty, that’s been where a lot of growth has happened for me in my life, because it makes you focus on the simplest things of whatever the process is that you’re involved in, because you don’t know the results, you don’t know what the end is going to look like, you don’t know how people matched up in their new roles are going to perform. But what you can control is going forward and making sure every step you take on the field, in drills, in periods, in practices are where they should be.”
Waller’s forward thinking was matched with a message the defensive captain Maxx Crosby had already shared on an Instagram post, that “adversity introduces a man to himself.”
“When adversity hits, it really just brings out everyone’s true colors,” Crosby said. “Obviously this team is no stranger to adversity. I’ve dealt with it every year that I have been here, and this is a time where everyone’s got to come together.”
“We’ve got new guys, we’ve got guys that have been here, we just all got to bond together in a hard time like this.”
It feels like the longest 72 hours in Raiders history is finally coming to a close. Now, it will be time to find out if the Silver and Black can overcome the adversity they are facing and walk out of Mile High Stadium with their first win without Jon Gruden.
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