Tag: Tom Telesco

Raiders close to stealing front office member from the Chargers

The Raiders are bringing in the Chargers’ assistant general manager for a second, in-person interview.

Chargers assistant general manager Chad Alexander will fly to Las Vegas on Monday for a second, in-person interview for the Raiders’ general manager position, according to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport.

Before coming to Los Angeles, Alexander spent five years as the Jets’ director of player personnel. He played a key role in New York drafting Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner, the 2022 Offensive and Defensive Rookies of the Year.

Before joining New York, Alexander spent 20 seasons with the Ravens, most of which was with general manager Joe Hortiz. He worked in various roles, from an area scout to serving as Baltimore’s Assistant Director of Pro Personnel in his final nine seasons.

Alexander attended the NFL’s Front Office & General Manager Accelerator Program in Dallas last month.

If Alexander is hired, it would be the second consecutive year in which the Raiders hired a general manager from the Chargers’ front office. Last year, they hired Tom Telesco, who was fired after one season in Las Vegas. Telesco was with the Bolts for 11 seasons.

Raiders GM interview tracker

Tracking all the going on with the Raiders search for a new General Manager.

Last week, the Raiders fired GM Tom Telesco. Now the search for the Raiders next GM has begun. Tuesday morning the first reports came out of interview requests by the team for their next GM.

Here’s are the candidates and the latest on the status of the Raiders interest.

Packers VP of Player Personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan

Raiders requested an interview with Sullivan.

Buccaneers Assistant GM John Spytech

Raiders requested an interview with Spytech.

Spytech is very familiar with Tom Brady. He as the Bucs’ Director of Player Personnel when they signed Brady and then won the Super Bowl.

Other teams are looking for a new GM who could give the Raiders some competition.  The Titans are one such team. They completed their second interview with Colts Assistant GM Ed Dodds on Tuesday.

Giants Assistant GM Brandon Brown

Raiders will interview Brown on Monday.

Commanders Assistant GM Lance Newmark

Raiders will interview Newmark on Monday

You can also keep up on all the goings on with the head coach position in our Raiders head coach interview tracker.

Antonio Pierce said Raiders fans upset about losing the No. 1 overall pick should talk to GM Tom Telesco

Antonio Pierce is coaching to win, not for a top draft pick.

Count Antonio Pierce among the people unconcerned with the Las Vegas Raiders losing control of the NFL Draft’s No. 1 overall pick by virtue of their win over the similarly inept Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.

Not that anyone should be surprised.

Pierce’s Raiders are a mediocre product. Across the board, they don’t have much going for them. With just three wins entering Sunday, it would’ve been very easy to suggest Pierce is essentially coaching for his job, with every game’s outcome meaning so much as to whether he stays in Las Vegas or not after the 2024 season. Quite honestly, Pierce might be fired no matter what happens next, so he’s likely just focused on getting every win possible he still can in the short term.

When Pierce was asked to address Raiders fans who were upset about the team likely losing the top draft pick by winning, he said they should direct their ire toward general manager Tom Telesco.

Hoo boy.

Pierce’s comments can be read in one of two ways.

First off, as a coach who might not be employed by the Raiders come the end of the season, Pierce has no obligation to simply wave the white flag in the meantime. Worrying about draft positioning is something for a person who will likely remain in power in the front office. Namely, Telesco.

Of course, there’s the flip side of this. You could argue it’s Telesco’s fault for building a flawed, bad Raiders roster that was even in a position for the No. 1 overall pick in late December in the first place. From this perspective, Pierce would be saying it’s Telesco’s fault this top draft pick discussion is even a controversy because he didn’t exactly put the Raiders in a position to thrive.

No matter what it is, it is good to hear Pierce stand up for himself. The Raiders’ future — without him in the picture, mind you — wouldn’t be his problem. He has bigger fish to fry than worrying about getting players he likely won’t coach.

Key things to know about Chargers’ Week 1 opponent: Raiders

Here are some important things to know about the Raiders ahead of the Week 1 matchup with the Chargers.

The Chargers will open up the 2024 regular season at SoFi Stadium against the Raiders on Sunday, Sept. 8 at 1:05 p.m. PT.

To get you prepped for the Week 1 bout, here are five key things to know about Los Angeles’ opponent ahead of the matchup.

Got the promotion

After the 2023 season, the Raiders removed the interim tag from Antonio Pierce’s title and promoted him to full-time head coach. Pierce served as Las Vegas’ linebackers coach before taking on the interim role after former head coach Josh McDaniels was fired. He led them to a 5-4 record.

The man under center

The Raiders had a quarterback battle during the summer between Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell, and Minshew prevailed. This offseason, Minshew signed a two-year, $25 million contract, marking the fourth team he’s played on. Over five seasons with the Jaguars, Eagles and Colts, Minshew has started 37 games, posting a 15-22 record. He has faced the Chargers twice in his career and is 0-2 against them.

Big fish landed

Former Chargers general manager and current Raiders GM Tom Telesco’s biggest offseason move was acquiring Christian Wilkins. Wilkins, the top defensive tackle on the market, signed to a four-year, $110 million contract. Wilkins is coming off a season in which he amassed career highs in sacks (nine), quarterback pressures (61), and quarterback hits (23). Along with being a prolific interior pass rusher, he’s just as impactful against the run.

Other offseason additions

Telesco’s other moves in the offseason came mainly on the offensive side of the ball, with running back Alexander Mattison, guard Cody Whitehair and rookie tight end Brock Bowers. Center Andre James re-signed to a two-year deal. They will all be key pieces for Luke Getsy, who will enter his first season as Raiders offensive coordinator. Getsy previously served in the same role for the Bears.

Look out for…

Edge rusher Maxx Crosby. Crosby has asserted himself as one of the top defensive players in the league. He finished last season with a career-high 14.5 sacks. Rookie offensive tackle Joe Alt should get a heavy dose of Crosby this game, so it will be interesting to see how he fares.

Las Vegas product Jonah Laulu was casualty of Colts DT depth, bonus draft pick for Raiders

Raiders wanted to draft Las Vegas product Jonah Laulu. And thanks to the Colts deep DT room, the Raiders got him anyway

To be honest, this is one of the few years I can recall there being less struggling with predicting who the Raiders might keep and who they might cut. That’s not to say my predictions were perfect — they were pretty close — that’s to say there weren’t a lot of guys getting pushed out due to a numbers issue. Which is to say just too much talent at that position.

There were several positions, however, where they had the opposite problem. The most glaring was probably defensive tackle.

Outside the top three of Christian Wilkins, John Jenkins, and Adam Butler, no one was stepping up to take the final couple spots on the depth chart.

So, when it came time for cuts, the Raiders were on the lookout for a player who was probably talented enough to make their roster, but still found themselves the odd man out on a more talented squad.

That was the case in Indianapolis. They had the good kind of problem where they are very deep at the position and so a tough cut had to happen. GM Chris Ballard had said it was the toughest position for him due to how deep it was.

The result was that both of the defensive tackles they waived were scooped up off the wire by other teams. Their 2022 fifth round pick Eric Johnson II was claimed by the Patriots and this year’s seventh rounder Jonah Laulu was claimed by the Raiders.

“I give Tom Telesco credit, now,” said Ballard of Raiders claiming Laulu. “Jonah, he’s probably not ready, but he will be one day. He’s going to be a good player.”

Telesco and Antonio Pierce were familiar with 6-5, 292-pouner because he is from Las Vegas and attended Centennial High School. And according to Pierce, the team was looking to draft him.

“Jonah was here at our local pro day, and I liked him,” said Pierce. “I was a little disappointed we didn’t get a chance to draft him, but you watch, you just look at your roster, you look at everybody else, you look at the waiver wire, and you make a decision. And we felt Jonah gives us some more depth and a little bit more juice in the D-line room.”

With Laulu available, the Raiders signed him and cut 2023 third round pick Byron Young who had a disappointing rookie season and didn’t appear to have improved any in this year’s camp and preseason.

Hard to say how much the Raiders were really looking to draft Laulu considering their last pick was at 229 where they selected CB MJ Devonshire and Laulu was picked at 234. Pierce and Telesco may have thought Laulu was draftable, but he just wasn’t at the top of their draft board when they picked. That’s how it happens sometimes.

Certainly with just 24 picks left in the draft, the Raiders were already working the phones and likely hoped they could land him as an undrafted free agent if nothing else. But the Colts made sure that didn’t happen.

No matter, in the end they got him anyway. And, for what it’s worth, they cut Devonshire as well and re-signed him to their practice squad.

Raiders Asst GM Champ Kelly: ‘I put my ego aside’ to work with new GM Tom Telesco

Champ Kelly ‘put (his) ego aside’ as interim GM when Raiders hired new GM Tom Telesco

Last season when the Raiders fired head coach Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler, it was Antonio Pierce and Champ Kelly who were given the titles of interim head coach and GM respectively.

Come the end of the season, Raiders fans were excited about the new energy coming from the team, prompting many to hope for the interim tag to be removed from both Pierce and Kelly to make their titles official.

Mark Davis had four choices. Either keep Pierce as head coach and bring in a new GM, keep Kelly as GM and bring in a new head coach, hire a new head coach and GM, or keep both Pierce and Kelly.

Davis liked both Kelly and Pierce, but keeping both in their new roles would mean the Raiders would have a rookie head coach and GM. Something that was a risky proposition. So, Davis went with the rookie head coach and brought in long time former Chargers GM Tom Telesco.

Hiring a new head coach would likely have meant Pierce would leave the staff. But hiring a new GM would mean Kelly stepped back into his previous role as Assistant GM. At least until he was hired away by another team.

That is, of course, if Kelly was amenable to it.

“I did not know Tom extremely well, said Kelly of Telesco.

“When we first got together, he laid out expectations for me and I was transparent with him about how I viewed the team and some of the needs and some of the [things] that we needed to do to make this team better. I was able to check my ego and put this team first.

“It’s not about me. It’s really about Raider Nation, the alumni, to try to put our best product forward so that we can win football games for this city and Raider Nation. Tom is easy to talk to and ultimately he wants what’s best for me and I want what’s best for him and this football team. And it’s my job to support him and all we do as we move forward. And hopefully we will continue to grow trust as we work together and win some football games together.”

That is a great attitude to have in an Assistant GM who, for a couple months, was entrusted with running the team. And Kelly likely knows that his name is out there in a positive way now, which means he is on the radar for GM jobs across the NFL as they open up.

Kelly has risen over the past 16 years in the NFL ranks from a college scout with the Broncos in 2007, to Director of Pro Personnel in Denver from 2010-14, to his current position which he now enters his third season with the Raiders.

Raiders sign former Chargers WR Jalen Guyton

Raiders sign former Chargers WR Jalen Guyton

Raiders GM Tom Telesco has brought a familiar face onboard in Las Vegas. Jalen Guyton, who played with the Chargers the past five seasons has been signed on in Las Vegas.

After not taking a wide receiver in last month’s draft, the Raiders have now signed two free agent wide receivers in the past week. Last Week they added former Cowboys WR Michael Gallup.

Adding some wide receiver help was crucial as they were woefully thin at the position. They had starters Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers along with second year man Tre Tucker and not a whole lot else. Giving both Guyton and Gallop a decent chance of cracking the roster.

Guyton’s best seasons came in 2020-21 when he put up a combined 59 catches for 959 yards and six touchdowns with 11 starts.

The last two seasons, however, he’s had just 12 combined catches for 153 yards and one touchdown. So, obviously, he will be hoping to revive his career with in Las Vegas.

5 takeaways from Raiders GM Tom Telesco’s pre-draft press conference

5 takeaways from Raiders GM Tom Telesco’s pre-draft press conference

With the draft days away, the Raiders made their GM Tom Telesco available to answer questions from the media. I compiled a few quotes from Telesco that stood out to me and discuss.

1. On if he’s been speaking with teams about trading the pick at 13:

“News flash GM says he’s open to trade up, moving back, picking at a spot. Everybody always says the same thing. We have a plan right now to go up if we have to and be aggressive with it, we got a plan to stick and pick obviously. And we got a plan to go back if it’s within in a certain range. It’s been normal this year just like other years. There’s been conversations with other team, but it’s probably more general than specific. Really wouldn’t get more specific until later in the process — Tuesday, Wednesday, even Thursday and sometimes when you’re on the clock. But it’s been the same amount of work that goes into that.”

My take: This is more for those who will try and make this quote a bigger deal than it is. Telesco almost rolls his eyes with his response because it’s one of those questions that is asked every year and he’s entering his 11th year doing this. They have a plan in place. They’d be derelict in their duties heading into this draft if they weren’t.

THAT BEING SAID: The name most discussed with regard to the Raiders is Washington QB Michael Penix Jr. Some think he is a reach at 13, while others have been talking about that the Raiders may have to trade up to get him. Technically both can be true because if there is a position to reach for it’s QB. And that goes for all teams with a need there, for which there are many.

2. His thoughts on more seasoned prospects in this draft — seniors and super seniors:

“I don’t have a problem with it. I think it’s good. The longer players stay in school, the better. They get farther with their education and hopefully finish and graduate and they get to keep working on their craft and become a better player. So, I think it’s good for everybody.”

My take: This is not the first time Telesco has commented on this. He was asked about it at the combine and had a similar answer.I think he’s genuine in that. Especially being in charge of a team that needs help right now to compete. The Raiders aren’t in the position to be taking players who aren’t NFL ready right now.

Who knows what will happen after their rookie deal is up. What he needs to think about is the talent level of the guys he’s getting right now, so some of these guys who are 4, 5, and 6 years removed from high school could be very valuable. Perhaps even more so than these raw supposed “high ceiling” guys.

3. On drafting for need or best player available:

“That’s the question every year. You try and balance it out, but the biggest thing is your needs change and they’re unpredictable. A need we may have today, may not be a need in August. We may have a player in the building right now who needs to develop and grow and fills that need. We may have a position group that feels really strong today and then we get to September or October and it’s not that strong.

“The story I’ve told here is, I guess it would be my first year with the Chargers. Our roster needed a lot of work, but I felt like our receiver group was the strongest group on the football team. So, we’re in the draft, we’re in the third round, and Keenan Allen’s card is just staring at us. Just begging us to take him. And so we decided ‘all right, we’ll take him, but more like probably redshirt him the first year, we don’t really have a spot for him, he may be inactive every week.’ And then we get into May OTA’s and one receiver gets hurt. We get into training camp and another receiver didn’t really perform the way he thought he would. And then in September another receiver got hurt, Keenan jumps in the game in September and he’s Rookie of the Year that year.

“So, like I said, your needs change quickly. Not predictably. So, it’s hard to go into a draft just thinking how we’re going to line up this opening day. We have to take a little bit more of a long range approach to it, four or five years down the road, rather than just how they fit today.”

My take: This is an argument mostly in favor of depth, which is one that gets overlooked a lot in draft analysis. It’s interesting that he uses wide receiver as his example here, because I think that’s the position that is getting overlooked as a need for the team right now.

They have Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers right now and they’re great. After that they have unproven Tre Tucker taking over in the slot and not much else. That means if anyone goes down, they are in trouble.

Not only that, Adams and Meyers’ contracts are structured in such a way that both will either leave or be in need of a restructure after this season. All this means receiver should not be ignored as a need on this team.

4. On qualities he looks for in prospects:

“It’s really the work ethic and preparation part of it. The league is so talented. Like with Joey [Bosa] I remember at the combine he was competing with those drills like it was a game day. He was just soaked in sweat. He was focused on every single drill he did. He’d go back to the bench and sit down, just kind of preparing for the next drill. That meant more than the actual times and how the drills looked, just watching how he works.

“Justin Herbert was similar. Where he just attacked everything like it was so important. And especially with the quarterback preparation is so big. In this league it’s got to be more than just talent, you got to have some other things to go alone with that because everybody is so good. And you’ve got to keep developing and proving over time. You can’t level out in this league or else someone passes you by.”

My take: He picked the right team for that. A group led by the ultimate work ethic player, Maxx Crosby, who brings along others as well to try and match his level. So, Telesco has all the proof he needs in his own building just what hard work and relentless dedication can create. Antonio Pierce has been here longer, so he may even value it more.

5. On carryover from last year:

“I’ve always said whatever happens in the last season, it really doesn’t carry over to the next year. Every year is new and different. But I will say the culture that was built late in the year last year, I’ve seen it in the offseason program. There are so many players here in January and February which is not really common where I’ve been in the past. I think that was built at the end of the year last year, so I do think that carries over. A lot of that has to do with our head coach as far as what he’s building around us and players that are here have built. I do think there’s some carryover there.”

My take: The harkens back to the previous quote about work ethic and preparation. These players are excited. Led by Crosby and guys like Robert Spillane and Jack Jones. Spillane recently said the defensive mindset is at an “all time high”. They are ready to pick up where they left off last season under Antonio Pierce.

Raiders release former first round OL DJ Fluker

New Raiders GM Tom Telesco has cut DJ Fluker who was his first ever draft pick as a GM

We’re still ten days yet before the Raiders re-convene for their first workouts of this offseason. That happens April 15. And yet today they cut ties with offensive lineman DJ Fluker.

Back in 2013, the former Alabama tackle was the 11th overall pick by the Chargers. In fact, he was Tom Telesco’s first top pick as GM of the Chargers. Now as Raiders GM, he’s cleaning out the closet.

Fluker is the second former Telesco first round pick to be released this offseason. Jerry Tillery was released last month.

Fluker was drafted as the answer at right tackle for the Chargers. That lasted two seasons before they moved him inside to guard, didn’t pick up his fifth-year option and let him walk after his rookie contract was up.

He has bounced around a lot since then. A season with the Giants, two in Seattle, and last appearing in an NFL game in 2020 for the Ravens. He was added to the Raiders practice squad late last season and now, without so much as an offseason workout, he’s out.

What positions each NFL GM drafted in top 100 picks since 2011

Where Bill Belichick, Les Snead, Tom Telesco and some of the NFL’s longest tenured GM’s used their draft capital since 2011.

Do tendencies tell us anything about what your NFL GM will do with their picks in the top three rounds? It might. At very least it could tell you what positions they value and don’t shy away from.

Former NFL analytics person Arjun Menon put together a spreadsheet of GM’s across the league to see where they spent most of their draft capital over the past 13 years. And it had some interesting results.

In terms of percentage, no team spent more draft picks on any single position than Ravens GM Eric DeCosta with 29.41% (5) of his picks in the top 100 on wide receivers.

If you’re looking at raw numbers, it was Rams GM Les Snead and his seven picks (20.50%) on wide receivers that leads the way.

Along with wide receiver, the positions that seem to be selected most with the top 100 picks are edge rusher and cornerback. Bill Belichick spent seven picks on each position which easily led any other position.

While the least picked position would be center, with many GM’s — including Belichick and Snead — having never selected one in the top 100.

The most drafted position for Raiders GM Tom Telesco in his ten years with the Chargers was linebacker which he selected 15.62% (5) of the time. Next up he had four pick each at wide receiver and guard (12.5%).

Overall, Telesco’s range of picks was spread out somewhat evenly. He used at least one pick at every position and had no positions even reach 16% of his picks.