Raiders legend talks Henry Ruggs, Darren Waller, Las Vegas

Raiders legend Tim Brown is happy with the roster moves the franchise made during the offseason. But then again, “I’m happy every offseason,” he said.

“Now we’ve got to go play football, right? … You can have all the No. 1 picks, all the great free agents and all that, but when it’s time to strap it up, you’ve got to go play,” Brown said.

“This team has to learn how to win.”

The Raiders in 2021 will seek their first playoff appearance since 2016 and second since 2002 — when the Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver helped them reach the Super Bowl.

The 54-year-old is as enthusiastic as anyone about their prospects this year and spoke with the Review-Journal on Monday after releasing a pair of exclusive nonfungible tokens in a partnership with Hall of Fame Resort and Entertainment Company, Dolphin Entertainment and H2H. The NFTs are available for auction until May 25 on OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace.

Brown was available to talk about his beloved Raiders.

Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

RJ: What exactly does it mean to learn how to win?

Brown: The great late Al Davis used to say it all the time. It really comes down to fundamentals and blocking and tackling. Don’t try to make that extra play. Don’t even risk the chance to make a mistake.

You look at the Miami game they had last year. They should be playing that game 24 hours a day at the facility for them to see “This is how you lose games in the NFL.”

You’ve got to have some leaders. They need to be talking about it now. Training camp is too late.

RJ: As a Hall of Fame receiver, what do you think Henry Ruggs needs to do to take a step in his second season?

Brown: He was really at a disadvantage last year. That’s one of the toughest offenses to learn, and when you don’t have offseason workouts and you don’t have a real training camp, you’re limited in what you’re going to be able to do.

Hopefully now, he’ll feel freer. I (didn’t) feel that 4.27 speed. I don’t feel that power and I know why. When you’re not sure, you can’t go 100 percent, you don’t remember “Am I turning right? Am I turning left? What am I doing here?”

Hopefully he’ll get all that out of him and he’ll be able to play this game full speed and we’ll feel that Bo Jackson power that he possesses.

RJ: Tight end Darren Waller broke your franchise record for receptions in a single season. What can he do to build upon that?

Brown: I don’t know what else he can do personally at this particular point to get better. He’s going to get better by the people around him getting better. If Ruggs and all these other guys can play better. Then that’s going to put more focus on them and guess what? That’s going to put him in a lot of one-one-one situations to win.

At this particular point, he’s depending on his teammates to get better so he can take his game to the next level.

I told that brother when I saw him, I said “Man, if you and I would have played together, we both would have caught 100 balls this season.” It would have been awesome.

RJ: Without fans at games, it felt like the city didn’t really have the full NFL experience yet. What are you anticipating this fall?

Brown: You may say this is an overstatement, but I don’t think Vegas has seen anything like Raider Nation. Once they’re fully able to come to the city and be who they are, I think people are going to understand that this is something totally different.

As far as the city of Vegas is concerned, now they’re going to be able to understand why this is such a good move for them. It’s going to be an incredible thing. Let’s have this conversation a couple days after that opening game. Everybody is going to understand.

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.