Usually, players who are locked in with a team on the first day of free agency have a great deal of starting experience. Or at very least they’re coming off being a full-time starter. Neither of those applies to Nick Kwiatkoski. And yet he was one of the first players the Raiders signed when free agency opened last March.
The fifth-year linebacker started games each of the past four seasons in Chicago but was never given the keys coming into the offseason. So, coming into it, he didn’t know what to expect.
“Initially going into free agency, before everything kind of picked up, I really had no idea what was going to happen,” Kwiatkoski said over conference call Monday. “It was one of those things that was kind of play it by ear. And for the Raiders to reach out so early and to be interesting, it was somewhere I always wanted, so it was a no-brainer for me.”
The Raiders see him as one of the faces of their overhaul at the linebacker position along with fellow free-agent prize, Cory Littleton. Even with 22 starts under his belt with the Bears, he has never been ‘the guy.’
“Yeah, it is the first time I’ve done that,” He continued. “The process for me hasn’t changed. Kind of had that process in Chicago when there was a lot of unknowns. Prepare like a starter, prepare like I was going to get reps was something I prided myself on the last couple years. That’s something a lot of people around me were priding themselves on, so that’s something they taught me.”
In particular, Kwiatkoski will be the ‘quarterback of the defense’ at middle linebacker, which, despite never being the starter going in, he ended up doing quite a bit over the past four seasons, which suggests he’s ready for this opportunity.
“I did it a bunch in Chicago. Off and on since the time that I’d been there, so it’s something that I’m used to doing,” said Kwiatkoski of wearing the green dot and calling out plays. “But just for here I’m right now just working on communicating with Cory, he’s right next to me, helping him with calls. Just overall communication with the defense. We lost a lot of time in spring and so that’s a big part of what I’m trying to do on the field right now.”
His transition to the Raiders defensive schemes and play calls has not been an easy one with there being no offseason practices. It’s still challenging even now because instead of having practices to put the plays on their feet and then absorb it over the offseason, he must do all of it in a little over a month’s time.
