HENDERSON, Nev.-Josh McDaniels and the Las Vegas Raiders have a settled initial 53-man roster thanks to the hard work of GM Dave Ziegler.McDaniels spoke at length about that roster, cuts, and the state of the Silver and Black.You can watch the entire interview below, and read the entire transcript:Head Coach Josh McDanielsOpening Statement...Head Coach Jonathan Bullard Jersey Josh McDaniels: Before you start asking questions, obviously a long proce s to get here, and the last few days are difficult days, we understand that - around the league, we're not unique obviously. We appreciate the effort, the competition, the commitment that everybody that we've had in camp, that we've had all year long has shown us. We had a great group of people here. Looking forward to getting a bunch of them back on the practice squad and continuing our proce s of developing them as Raiders, which we're hopeful that will pan out the way we want it to here shortly. But this is always one of those days - or the last couple of days - (that) are a little difficult, but I think our guys handled it great. Like I said, we've got 53 guys now and it'll be a proce s. Obviously it'll change many times between now and the end of the season. We're continuing to grind through this. I'm looking forward to practicing today.Q: In contemplating Alex Leatherwood over the last couple days, what was not happening for him that led to your decision?Coach McDaniels: We've talked about competition since we came here in every position group and trying to give every player an opportunity to earn his job and to earn his role, whatever that role may be - some are bigger than others. We felt like we did that. We gave everybody an opportunity to go out there and play and really perform. There's a lot of tough decisions that you make acro s Cordarrelle Patterson Jersey the roster, and you hope you get them all right. We're not perfect at that, so hopefully we did the best we could for our team, and we tried to make the decisions that we thought would help us going forward. (I) wish Alex Leatherwood nothing but the best. He did everything he could here to try to earn his role here. Like I said, I wish him the best as he goes forward.Q: Could you talk about the four free agents working their way onto the roster?Coach McDaniels: Sometimes you say it and maybe people hear it and let it go out the other ear, but it's really not about how you got here, it's about what you do when you get here. Those guys - you've seen them - theyve been out there every day first of all, they're durable; they've performed when they've had their opportunities; they've improved; they work really hard and it's important to them. We've got a lot of players that were vying for a lot of spots obviously, and those four guys came here and really just put their head down and continued to get better and make progre s. And they've all shown the ability to help us and continue to compete on fourth down, in the kicking game. There's a lot of reasons why you try to put together a roster that's diverse and those types of things, but those guys have all earned the opportunity that they have in front of them, and they're going to continue to have to earn it. We talk about that too - the competition doesn't end today or yesterday, you've got to continue to earn that. Those guys have definitely shown the attitude and the effort to be able to do that.Q: Can you talk about what went into the Trayvon Mullen trade?Coach McDaniels: Again, just trying to do what we think is the best for the team at this point in time. We've Nick Kwiatkoski Jersey had some guys that have shown up at that position and really done some good things. Sam Webb is one of them. Hard choices sometimes you have to make based on total numbers and what you're going to keep at a certain spot, but just felt like it was an opportunity for us to add something. He'll have a fresh start in Arizona, and again, wish him the best of luck too.Q: Does this seem more like 'your 53 after making roster cuts?Coach McDaniels: "I've really tried to stay away from that concept, because I think it's our team. First of all, I have a tremendous amount of respect for everybody that was here before and what they've done. We have a lot of great players that are here, that work really hard, great character and really do Prince Amukamara Jersey all the right things here that we didn't have anything to do with putting here. That's really not something that's on the top of my head or the tip of my tongue, and I don't think Dave Zielger and I have talked about that at all. We're obviously grateful for the players that are here; we had a lot of good ones here before we got here, and we've tried to improve the team if we could in any way that we could. I'm excited about the group that we have, I know that, and I'm looking forward to continuing to work with them. Scroll to ContinueQ: With some guys like Sam Webb and DJ Turner that are fighting to make the team, how much joy does it bring you to be able to tell them that theyve made the roster?Coach McDaniels: "Look, they've earned it, so I think it's gratifying for them. I think the coaches have done a good job of trying to develop each one of their players in their room and you're happy for them. I mean, that's one of the best things about our job, when you see one of the players have succe s. There's nothing more important than that. We work hard to try to give them an opportunity to succeed in their roles, whatever those roles might be, and when they have succe s, we're all happy for them. I know the team is. And again I can't overstate this, but we have to continue to push and try to compete and get better. It's a tough league, and you can't relax, you can't rest on your laurels, you can't feel like it's over. You have to keep competing and keep getting better. That's why we think a big part of improvement is competition. So the competition doesn't end yesterday or today. It might be a little different because we don't have as many guys, but they're still going to be competing for roles. With the flexibility that the league has offered us with the rules being able to bring people up and down and those kinds of things I don't really look at it like we just have 53. We have 53 plus we have the practice squad, which is as big as it's ever been. I'm looking forward to coaching all these guys. We see them as one team not two different groups."Q: How did you go about determining the numbers in the running back room? What did show you that earned him a roster spot?Coach McDaniels: "I don't think we go in with a predetermined number. Really what you try to do is keep the best guys that you can Allen Robinson Jersey on the roster that have earned it. So sometimes it's five running backs, sometimes it might be