Raiders’ Veterans Looking to Fight for Respect in 2014
Published at
David Lee/Thinkstock(ALAMEDA, Calif.) — The Oakland Raiders are looking to turn around a 4-12 record from last season.
The Raiders brought in 12 free agents this offseason and made a trade for quarterback Matt Schaub with the Houston Texans.
Two-time Super Bowl champion Justin Tuck is looking forward to showing the Giants that he can still play at the age of 31.
“A lot of people always say you go to Oakland for your career to die,” Tuck said this week. “I’m not looking at it like that. I’m looking at it like this is an opportunity to revive a storied franchise in a city with a great fan base behind this football team.”
“The energy and excitement around this football team should be good. I’m excited about it,” he continued.
After spending his career in Jacksonville, running back Maurice Jones-Drew is looking forward to competing with current Raiders running back Darren McFadden.
“I will see where I am, see if I still have it,” said Jones-Drew, who is coming off a foot injury.”That’s what you want … my goal is try and do whatever I can to help this organization get back to where it belongs. If that’s starting, then it’s starting. If it’s backing up, then it’s backing up.”
Wide receiver James Jones spent the last seven seasons with the Green Bay Packers and believes all the veterans like Tuck and Jones-Drew have something to prove.
“We have a lot of guys with chips on their shoulders, a lot of guys coming from teams that didn’t want them, didn’t want to pay them a certain amount of money, didn’t think they were worth it, didn’t think they had enough gas left in the tank,” Jones said.
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio