For the first time this year, the Raiders will be forced to shuffle their offensive line going into a game.
With the announcement on Friday that Jackson Powers-Johnson will miss Sunday’s game with a groin injury, Caleb Rogers is expected to get his first start of the season and seventh of his career.
Prior to the news that Powers-Johnson won’t be available, Sports Illustrated insider Hondo Carpenter said he expected Rogers to play in the game and added that Rogers could potentially take the job from Powers-Johnson with a strong performance.
“JPJ has not proven an ability to stay healthy, and the best ability is availability,” Carpenter said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider podcast.
“If Caleb plays and I think he’s going to play this week, if that happens you stand a chance of him not giving up that job once he got it. That’s why in this league you don’t want to miss. I don’t think there will be much of a dropoff with Caleb, at all. He hasn’t played a lot. I think there could be some mistakes, but I think he’s going to play at a really high level.”
“There was a lot of people in that building that though he was going to beat JPJ out. So don’t be shocked, I’m not predicting this, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he played at a level and JPJ never got his job back. The more experience he gets, the better he’s going to get. He’s a good football player. If there was one place on this offensive line that I don’t think an injury really hurt them, I think it’s Caleb backing up JPJ.”
Based on reports from training camp, Powers-Johnson was only marginally better than Rogers and he did just enough to hold off Rogers going into the season opener.
Through three games, though, Powers-Johnson hasn’t been outstanding, so it will be interesting to see how the coaching staff responds if Rogers plays well on Sunday.
Something else to keep in mind is the GM who drafted Powers-Johnson is no longer in the building. Rogers was a John Spytek pick and has a contract that keeps him with the Raiders a year longer than Powers-Johnson, who will be a free agent after next year.
x: @raidersbeat