Nesta Jade Silvera is ready to ‘hone in on everything’ going from one valley to another

Along with his prior relationship with Pierce, Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham had the chance to do a proper evaluation of Silvera at the Reese’s Senior Bowl earlier this year. Despite only being with Graham, who served as head coach of the National Team, for the one week in Mobile, Silvera said the experience made a lasting impact on him as a football player and is grateful to have the opportunity to continue to work with him.

Raiders General Manager Dave Ziegler stated he put trust in a lot of the people around him throughout his evaluation of Silvera. He began to make strong considerations to select him based off rave reviews from Graham, Pierce and current Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham – who Ziegler coached at Chaparral High School in Arizona.

“A lot of penetration, a lot of plays where he’s in the backfield and just a lot of plays where he’s finding the football and making tackles. Those guys are hard to find,” Ziegler said, giving his initial thoughts of the defensive lineman.

“Sometimes these guys that are transferring and things like that can get lost in the shuffle a little bit, but Antonio Pierce knew him from his recruiting days while he was at Arizona State. … There were some connections for us just to learn a little bit about his journey, learn about who he was and he was also a guy we brought in for 30 visit. We got to spend some time with him in the building and, yeah, really excited that he was there.”