Raiders’ head coach Dennis Allen on Khalil Mack: We’ve got his head spinning right now
By Jack Crosby
Without question, the Oakland Raiders are going to put a lot of pressure on their first-round draft pick, linebacker Khalil Mack, to step up early and lead this defensive unit. As if the transition from college to the pros wasn’t hard enough to begin with, the team looking to Mack to be the defensive quarterback on the field just amps the process up even more.
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Raiders head coach Dennis Allen recently explained just how much they’re throwing the way of their prized rookie, and Allen believes they have the young man’s head spinning.
“We’ve got his head spinning right now,” Allen said with a wry smile, per CSN Bay Area. “That’s a good thing. We’re going to try to throw as much at him as we can throughout the rest of this offseason and really even into the early part of training camp, and then at some point we’ll settle down to the things that we can execute as a team and execute at a high level.”
Of course, this is in no way a bad thing, because with what they’re expecting Mack to do not only this year, but for the foreseeable future, you want to test his limits as much as you can.
Mack even explained just how grueling the entire process has been.
“There are a lot of voices behind my head right now, and I’m trying to figure out what safeties are saying, and you have different calls,” Mack said. “It’s a lot of communication, like they said, but you have to listen to the right things while you’re out there and that’s what I’m trying to do right now. I’m trying to break down and assess the game at a fast and a high level like those guys are at right now.”
Mack, out of Buffalo, was considered maybe the second-best defensive prospect in this 2014 draft class, and some even had him pegged in the top spot over the no. 1 overall pick, Jadeveon Clowney.