SAN FRANCISCO –- Michael Irvin was captain of a Pro Bowl team last week, and got to see the Raiders’ finest talent up close and personal.
The Hall of Fame receiver and NFL analyst came away impressed. He had running back Latavius Murray on his squad, while former Raiders and 49ers great Jerry Rice had Derek Carr, Amari Cooper, Charles Woodson and Khalil Mack.
He was focused on the young offensive weapons, and was happy at least Murray was on his side following the Pro Bowl draft.
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SIGN UP HERE “I love that Cooper kid. I love Carr too, and I love Murray,” Irvin said on Thursday at the Super Bowl media center. “That’s why I made sure I didn’t give the other team ‘the triplets.’ There was no way they were getting Murray after taking Carr and Cooper.”
Each player had their moment in the Pro Bowl. Each player had several moment during the regular season, where Carr finished 13 yards from 4,000 while Cooper and Murray each topped 1,000 in their respective categories.
Irvin believes that young corps gives the Raiders hope for the future.
“I’m happy for the Oakland Raiders, or wherever they’re going to be playing football, because they have a young nucleus that they can build around,” Irvin said. “It reminds me a lot of our early years in Dallas, when we put our young nucleus together.”
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That’s when Irvin gave these Raiders a serious compliment. Irvin compared them to the Dallas Cowboys teams he started on. That group lost a ton of games in his first two years, then started to turn the corner with a 7-9 season in 1990. Sound familiar? The Raiders have followed a similar path.
After 7-9, Irvin’s Cowboys made the playoffs in eight of nine seasons and won three Super Bowls. Those Cowboys featured their own triplets, with Irvin, quarterback Troy Aikman and running back Emmitt Smith.
That group also featured current Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio and defensive coordinator Ken Norton at early in that historic run. Irvin knows potential doesn’t always turn into that type of production, and playoff teams are made with luck, tons of talent and everyone pulling in the same direction.
He told young Raiders as much at last week’s Pro Bowl in Hawaii, offering sage advice on how to build on a solid young foundation.
“There’s one thing they have to make sure of,” Irvin said. “And I talked to Derek Carr and I told him this in Hawaii: they have to make sure everyone on that team understands they do things a certain way. If new guys can’t do things that certain way, they need to send them right out the door. That’s what they have to understand. They have to set the tone every day in practice, every day in the offseason because people will watch them and see what they do.”