Raiders Position Interview
Media: You surprised the NFL by trading out of the first pick Coach Estrella, you had Teddy Bridgewater, who many see as a franchise quarterback sitting in your lap, why did you trade down?
Estrella: Well we had labeled another quarterback as a franchise guy and we thought we could get him in the second round but by the time we got to that point he was gone. It didn't mean much though, we still got Sammy, who we considered the best wide receiver in the draft by far. I mean did you see him in the Orange bowl against Ohio State? 16 catches for 227 yards and two touchdowns. That's ridiculous.
Media: He definitely solidified his spot as the number one receiver in the draft.
Now you have Sammy Watkins, Rod Streater and Denarius Moore as your starting receivers and Brice Butler, Andre Holmes and I've heard that you picked up Odell Beckham from LSU. How do you feel like your receiving corps this year?
Estrella: I feel like we have one of the best, if not the best young receiving corps in the NFL now. We have receivers in Watkins and Moore that can take the top off the defense, but also make tough catches, and we have Streater who has hands like glue. Butler and Holmes are developmental guys but they have a lot of potential. Speaking of potential, Beckham should not have been undrafted, he's explosive and he has an NFL body, he just needs to work on catching the ball while being hit and he could be a starter in this league,
Media: You seem very confident, how about your Halfbacks and Tight Ends? You've got Ebron, Jackson and Sankey back there. Will we be seeing a lot of them?
Estrella: Ebron is a guy we're really excited about, he's big, fast, strong, mot many tight ends are home run threats, but Ebron is special. We can use him in screens, end arounds, basically in an H-Back role. As for runningback, Rashard Jennings is the starter, but we'll go with the hot hand. Jackson needs some time to develop, we might send him down to the practice squad. Don't gorget Marcel, he's steady and the team wouldn't be the same without him. I wouldn't be surprised to see Ebron and Sankey starting sooner than later.
Media: That would be amazing for this team to get a couple of quality starters from this draft. You had a horrible offensive line last year, and it doesn't look like you made any effort to improve it, why is that?
Estrella: Well having a whole year to develop in my opinion has done wonders for them. We have Veldheer coming back, and Menelik has really stepped up in his right tackle role, Stefen is our anchor in the middle so I think we're pretty solid. I think Pryors mobility will help them out a lot, but we'll see what happens there.
Media: That's interesting, so you do plan on starting Pryor again this season, are you sure you want to do that after what happened last year? Him and McGloin did lead you to the number one pick after all.
Estrella: They didn't have a very good system in place, and this year is all about developing them. They have a good offense around them so they don't have any excuse not to at least play decent this year.
Media: Now onto the defense, your defensive line suffered a huge hit when Lamaar Houston decided to leave Oakland, do you think that Ealy is ready to replace him? How do you feel about the strength of your defensive line as a whole?
Estrella: I think we have an average line right now, but they do have a lot of pass rush potential. We have young and up coming guys like Sutton, Ealy and Montgomery and then we have the vets like Ballard, Sims and Mincey. Ealy, I don't think will be able to replace Houston's production this year, but I can see it happening soon.
Media: Well you better hope they can generate some sort of pass rush, because if they don't you're defense is in for a long day. We're going to skip the linebackers segment and just go right into the secondary, you guys picked up Alterraun Verner to be a leader on defense, paired with Tyvon Branch it doesn't look like a bad start.
Estrella: Well I'd say it's a damn good one haha. Verner was a shut down corner last year for the Titans and I'm just happy we could bring him back to California seeing as he went to UCLA. Don't count DJ Hayden out either, he can do it all, but he just needs to stay healthy. Tyvon Branch will be getting a lot of work, but I'm sure that he'll be able to handle it, I hope Usama Young is ready to be thrust into the starting spot, because Woodson is gone now. Well that's all the positions, nice talk man.