The Las Vegas Raiders concluded their mandatory minicamp on Thursday, with head coach Antonio Pierce giving the team off as a reward instead of holding a final practice. The Raiders completed their organized team activities last week.
Now, players will get a month-plus off before the team reconvenes for training camp in late July, the start date of which has yet to be revealed.
The biggest concern between now and then is players staying ready, whether that be with the playbook, their physical shape, 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 go next month, both mentally and physically.
MORE: Raiders 53-man roster projection post-minicamp
"We're not going backwards," Pierce said, according to Levi Edwards of Raiders.com. "It is on you to come here and the physical shape is on you, to be ready mentally and emotionally... We're going with the guys that put in the time and commitment to do what we want to do over the next six months. And that's just to do one thing and one thing only and that is win, and I want winners.
"Winners never stop working. You can decompress but I didn't say you can stop working. So, we've got to find a way of that, and I just told them when they come back, kick in the front door and let's get this bad boy rolling."
With the amount of buy-in we've seen on the players' part under Pierce, I wouldn't expect them to slack off ahead of training camp — but never say never.
