Raiders get bonus days in California thanks to rule

A rule book technicality that prohibits travel on mandatory NFL off days meant a couple of bonus days for the Raiders this week in Southern California.

Not that anyone was complaining about the 13-degree drop in temperature from Las Vegas to Westlake, where the Raiders set up camp on Sunday night in preparation for joint practices against the Rams on Wednesday and Thursday ahead of their preseason game on Saturday at SoFi Stadium.

By rule the Raiders weren’t allowed to fly to Los Angeles on Monday, which was technically a day off after their 34-7 win over the 49ers on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium. In order to maximize their work week and be better prepared to deal with the Rams on Wednesday, the Raiders opted to fly to Los Angeles immediately following the game on Sunday rather than on Tuesday.

“We just thought this is the best thing logistically for us is to go ahead and travel after the game,” said Raiders coach Josh McDaniels. “And that way we can kind of have our feet on the ground here and not try to do too much the day before we’re getting ready to practice with another football team.”

As a result, they spent Monday recuperating in Southern California before reconvening on Tuesday to go over the tape of the 49ers game and get prepared for their workouts with the Rams.

The alternative was rehashing their preseason game against San Francisco on Tuesday in Henderson, traveling to California later in the afternoon, then waking up Wednesday for a mid-morning practice against the Rams.

“We just didn’t feel like that was conducive to giving ourselves the best opportunity to have a productive day,” McDaniels said. “So we thought this was best.”

The Raiders are likely to follow the same work-week blueprint for the Rams as they did the 49ers. That probably means most of their starters and key backups getting the bulk of the work during the two joint practices and using the game to get young players like quarterback Aidan Connell, wide receiver Tre Tucker and some others plenty of game reps.

“I think we’ll get tested in every phase for two straight days with a really good team that’s well coached, got a lot of really good players,” said McDaniels. “So this will be a great opportunity for us to get challenged in a different way. Some of their strengths might be a little bit different than San Francisco’s – the scheme is definitively different on both sides. And so that was kind of what we thought about relative to putting these things together and how we could benefit.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.