Raiders’ Minshew sounds good for new offensive leadership

Here is the full transcript of head coach Antonio Pierce’s media availability on Wednesday:

Q: Have you decided on a quarterback?

Coach Pierce: “Yes. Gardner Minshew.”

Question: What did that decision entail?

Coach Pierce: “Listen, when we brought Gardner (Minshew) in, we obviously expected the play that we had seen in the past. And at some point you have to give a guy confidence. And there have been times, obviously, with turnovers and other things that happened where we made the decision to bench him or go to another quarterback. But this week I felt like Gardner gives us the best chance to move forward, and he has every opportunity to go and help us to victory.”

Q: How do you instill confidence in Gardner Minshew right now?

Coach Pierce: “Everyone around him. Starts with the staff, starts with myself, starts with faith and lets him know, ‘Man, go out there and let it go, let it go.’ And what do we have to lose at this point, right?

Q: You’ve made some changes to the offensive staff. Scott Turner is the offensive coordinator, you bring in Norv Turner and Joe Philbin is the offensive line coach. What changes can we expect? Will they be dramatic or subtle?

Coach Pierce: “I think that’s what we’re all waiting for. We’ll see here at practice today. Obviously I’m not going to make any promises, but I just wanted a change, wanted a spark, wanted different By bringing in Norv (Turner) as someone from the outside, he obviously watched our games. Lots of respect for Norv as a player. I started coaching and watching him from a distance obviously been with Scott (Turner) for the last few years ideas from outside, different perspectives, game planning, how to attack the weakest link, how to get our players in the best position to be successful which I’m looking forward to.”

Question: You made that decision (changes in the coaching staff) soon after the match. How much did it help you in your game planning to do that so quickly? Coach Pierce: “Huge. I wanted to put an end to it. Once I made the decision that we were going to move forward, we had to get those two gentlemen in place, take care of everything we needed to do from an HR standpoint in the area of paperwork, and they’re in the building and going to work during our bye week to give ourselves ten days to prepare for the Dolphins.”

Q: How do you think the bye week went for the coaching staff and even the players who were away?

Coach Pierce: “Good, good. I needed it, man. I needed to take a good cold shower, a cold bath and wash away all the bad stuff that happened in the nine games. And I think our staff did the same thing .I know our players.” I did, but they were still near the building, which is the best part, right? People may doubt our locker room, maybe our culture, maybe me, but you can’t question our dedication to this bad boy and turning it around. So when they came in here on Tuesday, I felt that. That’s what they felt from me, and hopefully you feel it now.

Q: Thoughts on getting Michael Mayer back in practice and possibly playing in the future?

Coach Pierce: “Excited, man. It was good to see Big Mike (Michael Mayer) back, man. He looked good, got a little tan, so I don’t know where he was, but he was hanging out somewhere. But he looked good, man. He’s in shape. He stayed here all the bye week to train, get himself back into football shape and get excited around the team, around the building, you heard a lot of knocking. But at the end of the day, it’s just business as usual, that’s what Mike is all about, business.’

Q: Do you expect it to be a kind of ramp-up period? I know he has that practice period before he has to officially come back. Do you think he might need some time to prepare?

Coach Pierce: “Luckily we had a bye week. That’s a good stepping stone period there too.”

Q: You mentioned Scott Turner, but you also promoted Joe Philbin to interim offensive line coach. What do you expect from him?

Coach Pierce: “Fundamentals and technique, man. That’s what I was looking for with our O-line, right? Pad level, eyes down, hitting, physicality up front, stepping off the rock, hand placement, hat where it’s supposed to be Joe Philbin is been involved in this game for a long time, has coached some really good offensive lines and has run some good offenses as well. And obviously you have a gentleman who has been a head coach, we talked about that before offensive coordinator, and his strength is O-line play. And all we talked about was purely what we look like outside of the offensive line. What does it look like physically from a technical standpoint, from a fundamental standpoint? I’m curious to see what these guys do today putting it into practice every day.”

Q: Have you decided who will take over the quarterback room from a coaching standpoint?

Coach Pierce: “Scott (Turner) will be there.”

Q: As far as your offense goes, is it possible to make big changes at this point in the season or is it more tinkering and small changes?

Coach Pierce: “No, I think we need to change what it looks like, what it sounds like, the outcome, the mechanics, the bottom line. Being efficient in the running game, right? Taking care of the football, getting opportunities in the red zone, Scoring. All those things that were shortcomings for us in the first nine, that’s what we want to see improvement on, especially this week. And it’s not going to be all in one week. I’m not going to fix all those things can do in one week, but there are certain things that we’ve talked about as a staff and as a team that we need to resolve this week in particular.”

Q: Jackson Powers-Johnson played well at center. Do you feel that you will remain in the middle with him in the future?

Coach Pierce: “He is the focus this week.”

Q: What does working with Scott Turner look like to change the look of the offense? Do you just let him do his thing or do you have a few key points you want him to implement or change? How does that work?

Coach Pierce: “I think I talk to all of our coordinators exactly what I want it to look like, and they obviously come up with the game plan. But there are certain things that need to change. Our ability to run the football needs to change. We have to run the football. We are one of the worst teams in football, if not the worst team in football. So that has to change we have opportunities, either through our special teams or our defense, to get the ball into the end zone So those are things we do all the time We’ve been working on this bye week, and we’ll be working on this week before Miami.”

Q: I know the teams are different from last year, but obviously you guys played the Dolphins. Is there anything you can take from that game last year to help you this year?

Coach Pierce: “Yeah, I think I feel their speed, because that’s real. Those guys are fast, man, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4. I don’t think anyone’s at a 4.5, I think that’s illegal for their scouting department. But it’s really I think we feel like with 10 (Tyreek Hill), with 17 (Jaylen Waddle), 28 (De’Von Achane) not that much in that game. played, and I think 31 (Raheem Mostert). Just getting those guys going, understanding the pace, speed and efficiency that Tua (Tagovailoa) plays with for us to go back and watch now as we look at the other four games this year as well.”

Q: Your O-line broke down in the last game, what do they face this week?

Coach Pierce: “The bye week helped. The bye week helped; I’m just saying. The bye week helped. We’re getting there. And the good thing is the guys don’t want to be in the training room.” We have one of those teams where guys don’t want to be in the training room, they want to be on the grass.”

Question: Will Kolton Miller be at training and also Andre James?

Coach Pierce: “Yes, Kolton (Miller) will be limited, and Andre (James) will be out today.”

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