It's been in the mid-70s in Southern California where the Las Vegas Raiders are having training camp, whereas Las Vegas is having scorching temperatures at or even above 100 degrees. The wonderful weather is not only helping them well, not die of heat exhaustion, but it's getting them away from where they're at all day every day.
Being in Costa Mesa, California is helping the team bond and create chemistry. And, you're really starting to see in some of the players training camp play. Players who needed to step up, well, some of them, are really having a great training camp.
Not that he needed to have a great one because we know what he is - Nate Hobbs is one of those guys who has had a dominating day. On Monday, he had several pass breakups in a row where he didn't allow a catch. That's great, right? Wrong. To Hobbs, he doesn't look at it that way.
"You said batted the ball down? I don't need that," Nate Hobbs told the media on Monday. "We don't need that. I dropped a pick. That's a game-changing play we need. We are not happy with deflections or pass breakups."
Hobbs has a point, too. Sure, the pass breakups are good because they don't allow the offense to make a play, but you ultimately want to be the one making the play. You want to get the ball because now you can allow the offense to score, rather than potentially the next play the team you are defending has a play that takes away your pass deflection.
The Raiders were 17th in team interceptions last season with just 13. The crazy part is, that that's actually an improvement compared to what they had been the years prior. So, getting those pass deflections to turn into interceptions would be great for the defense in 2024.
