ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Eddie Vanderdoes is doing his best to extend the Oakland Raiders brand, so to speak.
The former UCLA defensive tackle grew up outside of Sacramento in Auburn, about a two-hour drive from the Oakland Coliseum. So with the Raiders making Vanderdoes their third-round draft pick, well, let's let him explain ...
"Most of Auburn is Raiders fans," he said after Day 1 of the Raiders' rookie minicamp last week. "And if they're not Raiders fans, they just became one last week.
"I'm happy to make my community proud and it's great that they support me 100 percent. It's nice that I'm local. Couldn't be in a better situation than I am right now."
Especially with defensive tackle being a position of need in Oakland and Vanderdoes being happy and healthy for the first time in a while.
Vanderdoes, you'll recall, was a top 10 national high school recruit who initially signed with Notre Dame before switching to UCLA to be close to his grandmother, who was battling breast cancer.
And in his first two seasons with the Bruins, Vanderdoes shined, starting 19 of 26 games and getting nine tackles for a loss. It continued in his junior season opener as he had eight tackles before he tore the ACL in his left knee.
Then, last year, he dealt with a strained knee, kept aggravating an ankle sprain and suffered a bone bruise. The 6-foot-3 Vanderdoes' weight ballooned to 340 pounds and he had 29 tackles in 12 games.
Last Friday, he said he weighed 301 pounds.
"I'm in good shape and where I want to be," Vanderdoes said. "Now, it's just learning the playbook, learning the technique and taking it to the next level."
Raiders coach Jack Del Rio called Vanderdoes an "active" defensive lineman, which is a reason why he was the first UCLA player drafted by Oakland since Kenyon Coleman in 2002.
"He's got awareness," Del Rio said of Vanderdoes. "He's not a guy that just pushes blocks and has no idea where the ball is. His film is inconsistent, honestly. There's some that's better than others. I just talked to him a little while ago and said, 'We're looking for the high energy guy, the motivated guy.'
"We think his best football is in front of him ... come in here and add depth to our defensive line and give us a little interior push."
The Raiders were one of three teams, along with the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers, to rank in the bottom 10 in yards allowed both before and after contact per rush last season, per ESPN Stats & Information.
A lighter and, thus, more athletic Vanderdoes should help Oakland at the point of attack. And he will have a familiar formula at his disposal with the Raiders training staff keeping his nutrition on point.
"It's just discipline, you know?" he said. "Getting my weight down since the end of November has been the goal I had set for myself and I knew I had to do it, and I did it. I feel great and I plan on staying here, for sure. There's no more slip ups or whatever you guys want to call it. So, I'm not really worried about that.
"Diet's been huge. It's just a matter of portion control and exactly what you take into your body. So, I learned a lot of that at EXOS. The ... strength and conditioning staff here is also from EXOS, I learned that today. So, I'm able to take what I did at EXOS and do it here as well ... I'm able to thrive in this strength and conditioning program and excited to get to work."