The Raiders Are Strengthen Bond on and Off the Field

Raiders punter AJ Cole is one of the longest tenured Raiders players on the roster. Cole is entering his seventh season with the Raiders.

The Raiders made significant changes this offseason, but the Battle for Vegas charity event gave the Raiders' players in attendance a chance to get to know each other even more, as several new and returning Raiders players participated.

At the Battle for Vegas event, Cole noted the importance of returning Raiders connecting with their new teammates outside of the team facility.

"I think that matters. Some people may say that it does but I think the comradarie matters. EVven doing stuff like this matters. Getting to know the guys outside of the facility, I think, is huge. We were doing that golf thing for a little bit, now we are playing softball," Cole said.

"I think one of Pete Carroll's big things is, always compete. So, when we get out here (on the baseball field,) we are going to compete. When we are on the golf course, we are going to compete. How you do one thing is how you do everything. So, we are going to keep it rolling out here."

During his introductory press conference, Carroll wasted no time explaining how critical competition is to him and his coaching staff. While the Raiders were competitive in spurts last season, they rarely stayed competitive long enough to actually win games.

This season, the Raiders may only win a few more games than they did last season, but coaching and roster changes should make them more competitive.

"Well, the culture is the players, and you'll see that, but we'll show them the way. It all starts with competition. You're either competing or you're not. I'm going to make sure that that's really clear to these guys from the moment they get here,"

"But the competition part of it is theirs to command. If there's one thing that I want them to understand - and I'll start the message right now - if you want to be on a great team, you need to be a great teammate. Teaching what that's all about and instilling that in the makeup of our program is going to be crucial. The central theme in the program is always going to be competition, and that's where it starts."

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