Antonio Pierce gives straight message to Raiders players for pre-camp break

The Las Vegas Raiders concluded their mandatory minicamp Thursday, with head coach Antonio Pierce offering the team a reward in lieu of holding a final practice. The Raiders completed their organized team activities last week.

Now, players will get a month off before the team reconvenes for training camp in late July, the start date of which has not yet been revealed.

The biggest concern until then is that players stay ready, whether it’s playbook-wise, fitness-wise, or both. Before splitting up for the break, Pierce made sure to tell his players to take time to “decompress,” but also made it very clear that they better be ready to play next month, at both mentally and physically.

MORE: Raiders 53-man roster projected after minicamp

“We’re not backing down,” Pierce said, per Levi Edwards of Raiders.com. “It’s up to you to come here and fitness is up to you, to be ready mentally and emotionally… We’re going with the guys who have put in the time and commitment to do what we want to do at the over the next six months and it’s just to do one thing and one thing only and that’s to win, and I want winners.

“Winners never stop working. You can decompress, but I didn’t say you can stop working. So we have to find a way to make it happen, and I just told them that when they come back , break down the front door and let’s go.” roll this bad boy.

With the level of buy-in we’ve seen from the players under Pierce, I wouldn’t expect them to slack off before training camp – but never say never.