Head Coach Mike Macdonald Gives Final Updates Ahead Of Week 10 at Raiders

Mike Macdonald (0:02)

All right, nice dry one out there.

SPEAKER_2 (0:09)

How do you decide whether to practice outside with the rain?

Mike Macdonald (0:12)

I think we want to be out there as much as possible, and as long as the footing is okay, we tend to prefer to be outside. Once the footing gets a little funky, which our grounds crew do a phenomenal job of keeping the fields in great shape, so I can't think of the amount of times that we've actually had to be inside.

SPEAKER_3 (0:35)

Mike, how did Drew look this week?

Mike Macdonald (0:37)

Good, good. Similar cadence and workload in terms of last week, so it's good to have done it and gotten through the week well. So I know he's confident and optimistic, so we're in good shape. And I think it's appropriate to say that Jalen Milroe has done a tremendous job when he's been in there with the 1s. He's been really, really impressed. So he's worked extremely hard, and he's been very decisive. He's delivering the ball accurately on time.

He's done a great job filling in for Drew when we need him.

SPEAKER_4 (1:11)

With that, even if he doesn't end up playing over this stretch, how valuable is this time for Jalen to get all these reps?

Mike Macdonald (1:16)

Yeah, it's a great point. I was asking Sam during practice, I was about to say, hey, as funky as the situation is, like, it's great to see that, you know, what he's capable of doing with the starters. So anytime you're down your starters, and guys, those are really valuable reps for really anybody but including the quarterback position. So he's definitely taking advantage of it.

SPEAKER_3 (1:43)

Looks like you'll get Nwosu and Shaheed back.

Mike Macdonald (1:46)

Yeah, yeah, Uchenna and she will be back.

SPEAKER_4 (1:50)

Charles got back to practice yesterday for the first time in a while.

Mike Macdonald (1:52)

Was he close to being available for this week or was it? I think it's fair to say he should be ready for the game after the bye.

He's done a great job working through all the things. We just couldn't make this game, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_3 (2:12)

Drew was telling us that the oblique issue is in the back of the muscle, so it has an effective throw in. Is he ahead of where he was last week? Is it the elbows better? Is he actually done more and maybe better off than last week?

Mike Macdonald (2:25)

I'd say it's pretty similar to how we handled his workload last week.

SPEAKER_3 (2:30)

Jarran Reed, what's going on with him?

Mike Macdonald (2:32)

He had a personal issue that I'll just leave it as a good personal issue that he's excused from the team for a couple of days. It's great to have him back. But he'll be able to play in the game? Yeah.

SPEAKER_2 (2:49)

I'm guessing you don't have any more information than the rest of us, but there's a ground stop right now, at least, on air travel in the US. How does that affect potentially you guys if there's delays to when you can leave?

Mike Macdonald (3:01)

I just heard about it walking in here from Dave, so I don't know. We'll play it by ear and obviously we'll adjust to how we need to adjust, so we have a plan for tomorrow and we're leaving tomorrow, which helps obviously, so we're trying to leave tomorrow.

SPEAKER_4 (3:23)

How are Leonard and Sam doing in their recoveries at this point?

Mike Macdonald (3:27)

Each are on their own track.

I think I see Sam progressing with his rehab and the guys are saying he's doing a great job and he's progressing. We'll take it kind of a day and a week at a time. Same thing with Leo. Is this different with Leo? It's just when he becomes able to play, whether and Sam's probably more of a time issue. It's more of a linear path, I would say.

SPEAKER_3 (3:56)

Early in the week, you said you weren't rolling anything out on Leonard Williams. Have you been able to rule some?

Mike Macdonald (4:01)

Yeah, this is one of those things where you have to like, it's kind of not good until it is. So not good yet.

SPEAKER_2 (4:09)

Has there been any progress there? He was obviously out doing some warm-ups.

Mike Macdonald (4:12)

Yeah, I think so. I mean, you're able to move around and do all the things. It's just, I mean, you know, Stingers is just more of a contact thing. So trying to stand a good job by standing shape and staying fresh, and he's in the meetings. He's doing all the Leo things. He's just not playing right now.