Raiders’ new offensive coordinator grew up fan of team

Mick Lombardi came up through the ranks with the Patriots, but the Raiders always have been in his blood.

The Raiders’ new offensive coordinator grew up in a football family. While his father, Michael, had many jobs, there was one organization that always stood out.

“I grew up a Raider,” Mick Lombardi said. “My father and my mom, my brother, if you ask them what organization was most impactful during our time as a family, they probably would say the Raiders.”

Mick’s father became the senior personnel executive with the Oakland Raiders in 1998 when Mick was 10 and and stayed with the organization for nine years. That family history makes his new role more meaningful.

“I was very excited and very blessed to be a part of this organization,” Mick said. “Obviously it’s not the Bay Area. It’s Las Vegas, which is different. If it was in Oakland, it would be a really, really unique experience, but we’re excited to be here.”

Michael Lombardi was also a recruiting coordinator at UNLV from 1981 until 1984, before Mick was born.

Now the 33-year-old gets his first offensive coordinator job in the same city that launched his father’s career. Mick Lombardi likes what he’s seen of Las Vegas.

“This city has been unbelievable,” he said. “People have been great, and you can really feel the energy of people here wanting the Raiders to be a top-notch team for a long time.”

Lombardi has had a close relationship with new Raiders coach Josh McDaniels since he was a scouting assistant in 2012 and worked in a quality control capacity under McDaniels while cutting game tape, among other tasks.

Even though Lombardi ventured out and took on roles with the 49ers and Jets, he maintained the relationship with McDaniels. They were reunited in 2019 when he returned to the Patriots in a coaching role.

Lombardi was the assistant quarterbacks coach in 2019 and the wide receivers coach the past two seasons, honing his craft under the tutelage of McDaniels and coach Bill Belichick.

Now he is ready to take the next step in his career as an offensive coordinator with the Raiders with McDaniels as the coach and likely play-caller.

“I’ve been so grateful for him and what he’s taught me in terms of playing complementary football, teaching the techniques, coaching the entire offensive scheme, how you see things from a global perspective as opposed to just your position-specific idea,” Lombardi said.

“I’m going to work really hard to do that for him for the Raiders. All the things he’s instilled in me over the past number of years, I’m going to try to instill that with our staff as we move forward and have our team grow in that way.”

For now, that means studying the current players and the ones who will be added during the offseason.

“The time we spend now is learning the team from a fundamental standpoint, who they are, what their strengths and weaknesses are from the tape,” Lombardi said. “Then I’m really excited to get on the grass with those guys and kind of see what they can do well and what they can’t do well.

“Obviously, my job is to keep the offense as organized as possible and make sure we have a plan of attack every single day to try to get better every day, whether it’s March or November.”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.