Press conferences: They’re either the most important thing in the world or something to be entirely ignored, depending on if they validate how you already felt or not. Nonetheless, they are an important window into an NFL organization. Much as the eye in the sky don’t lie about players, coaches can’t cover up every emotion or lean they have when they’re asked questions. In omission, or in tone, even someone as tight-lipped as Bill Belichick or Nick Caserio can give something away. And that’s what this column scans for.
Let’s look at some of the trickiest situations for Week 11 lineups.
The Davante Adams scrolls -- both injury and non-injury related
We don’t really spend a lot of time talking about the kind of hell that is happening in Josh McDaniels’ first year in Las Vegas. Partially that’s because underwhelming teams are just off the national radar -- the level of Texans knowledge I have has conditioned me for nobody to understand what the hell I’m talking about. Partially it’s because the Vegas market is new to football.
After the Raiders lost to Saturday’s Squad last week, all hell broke loose. We had Derek Carr breaking down at the podium. We had both Carr and Davante Adams, in article, questioning out loud if there are some players who aren’t giving full effort.
Davante Adams: We don't have enough guys that are fully bought in. https://t.co/0gzlvzdw0T
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) November 14, 2022
So that’s the kind of dysfunctional system we’re working with. OK, the good news is that Adams at least was able to perform against the Broncos last time they played. He had a 9/101/0 line on 13 targets -- and this is a guy who has thrown some real duds in there as the offensive structure struggles. The bad news is that this game has a low 40s over/under depending on where you look, and the Broncos are major offense depressors in pretty much every sense of the word. And the worse news is that Adams popped up as questionable this week with an abdomen injury that limited him at practice all week.
What do we make of Adams’ abdomen injury? Well, that’s why I started with talking about the hell that Vegas is in -- nobody even asked McDaniels a question about it in his presser. I am forced to conclude that between Adams taking his regular press availability and McDaniels not answering about it in a 15-minute Friday session that beat reporters don’t actually believe it’s serious and that he’s likely to play on Sunday.
Can you make the argument that Adams’ injury + the low over/under + Patrick Surtain = Adams potentially disappointing? I don’t think so. I think he’s too good of a player and too important to the offense. But this is the 2022 Las Vegas Raiders, and they’ve already proven that anything is possible.
Mike Williams -- can you trust the high-ankle sprain?
Well, let’s talk directly to Mike Williams
Mike Williams Week 11 talks on high-ankle sprain pic.twitter.com/QJF7DIutaE
— rivers mccown (alt) (@mccownclips) November 19, 2022
He seems legitimately surprised that high-ankle sprains are supposed to keep affecting you.
It does seem to be good news up and down for both Williams and (as we’ll get to in a second) Keenan Allen. Williams told reporters in his short session that he’s ready to go, then he practiced in full on Friday. Most importantly, Chargers beat writers got access to him for this video, and they proceeded to bombard both Justin Herbert and Brandon Staley with questions about how important the two major wideouts are to the team.
I do maintain some small measure of skepticism on Williams just because of how high-ankle sprains can be, but between the fact that this one didn’t need surgery and all the supporting evidence that pretty much everyone in the building seems to think he’ll be ready, I can’t come up with a good reason to keep him benched on Sunday. I’m trusting him to bring WR2 production to the table.
Keenan Allen -- hamstring finally healed?
And again, let’s talk directly to Keenan Allen
Keenan Allen Week 11 talks on hamstring pic.twitter.com/XVw4fafyDs
— rivers mccown (alt) (@mccownclips) November 19, 2022
The gist of this conversation is: He practiced Friday and felt like he could have played. He doesn’t anticipate being held back in any way. The only thing that would stop him is if the coaching staff believed that he wasn’t ready to go -- which also doesn’t seem to be the case in any sense from observing Staley’s press conference. We even got a direct mention of a “pitch count” question later in this scrum that Allen said no to.
Now this hamstring is a little different for me because it’s been such a nuisance to Allen for so long -- I’m subjectively buffering because it has had multiple setbacks -- but again, everything appears to be pretty positive from all accounts. The coaches want to play him, Allen is not talking like he was earlier in the season when he wasn’t even sure if he should be out there, the practice reports are good (Allen also practiced in full), and it looks like he’s going to be full-go.
As with Williams, I’ve gotta say if you’re worried about holding a late Sunday spot on Allen, I think there’s not a lot to be worried about from where we sit as I write this Friday night. He’s a WR2 in a down week for wideouts that you start with confidence. And you sure as heck hope that the return of Allen and Williams can bring the Chargers passing attack back to their former glory and we forget about how it has played of late.