Raiders HC Antonio Pierce's Message to Players Trying to Make the Roster

The Las Vegas Raiders have one more important step before getting ready to take on the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium in Week 1.

The Raiders have to make cuts and finalize the 53-man roster.

The Raiders will play their final preseason game on Friday. This game may not be interesting to most, knowing that the starters will not be playing. But for Raiders coach Antonio Pierce, he is treating it like any other game.

Pierce has players playing to make a living in the league. He wants his players to know that they are watching and wants to see the team play Raider football and get a victory.

This will be the last game before NFL teams have to cut players and turn in a 53-man roster next week. Players playing will go out there and do their best to put on a show for the fans and for the teams that are watching.

"We talked about it," Pierce said. Our theme this week was finishing. I even go back to the two games. We had opportunities in both these last two preseason games to finish, and for whatever reason, we didn't do a good job in the fourth quarter. And I told these guys they got a great opportunity for themselves. Competing for the roster spot, and really, it's not just for the Raiders. It is the entire National Football League. Because we know that we are not going to have everybody on the roster. There will be other opportunities on practice squad or other teams. So, they are competing in front of everyone, and this is a big week for them. And I think it is critical for some of the guys that we are going to play, that might have two or three years in the league as well, to prove that they can take that next step because we got to keep continue to build depth within this team to have the team we wan.,

The Raiders will start breaking down the roster to 53-man following Friday's game.