The Raiders kicked off the Pete Carroll era on Thursday night with a 23-23 tie in Seattle.
Overall, it was a sloppy performance from the Raiders, but there were a few positive takeaways including the debut of sixth-round pick Cam Miller.
Miller nearly led a come-from-behind win and finished the night completing 6 of 7 throws for 76 yards and a touchdown. If there was any doubt that Miller is going to make the team, it evaporated on Thursday night.
Maybe the most disappointing development on Thursday night, though, wasn’t technically a development at all. It was more of what we saw from the offensive line in 2024.
Under new offensive line coach Brennan Carroll, the hope in Las Vegas is that this year’s offensive line will outperform last year’s version with largely the same cast of characters.
After some shuffling around in the first two weeks of training camp, the Raiders appear to have settled on a starting offensive line, but the overall play in the trenches on Thursday night wasn’t a lot better than it was a year ago.
“I thought, and I’ll say it for him, the offensive line let [Aidan O’Connell] down,” Las Vegas Review-Journal insider Adam Hill said after the game. “There’s no question about it. I thought they let the quarterbacks down.”
“There were a couple of rookies [with] penalties and even when there weren’t penalties, there was just guys rushing free. Jordan Meredith and Jackson Parker Johnson played extensively in that game, but I thought the rest of the line was letting the quarterback down.”
Offensive tackles Kolton Miller (4) and D.J. Glaze (12) combined to play 16 total snaps, and based on Thursday’s showing, the coaching staff might not have many they can count on behind the starters.
Jackson Powers-Johnson and Jordan Meredith were both on the field for 40 snaps, and didn’t play poorly, but it was an overall sloppy effort from the entire group.
Going into training camp, there was outside conversation around one of the rookie offensive linemen potentially challenging for a starting job, but Charles Grant (53.4) and Caleb Rogers (51.2) were two of the team’s lowest-graded offensive linemen by Pro Football Focus in week 1 of the preseason.
Surprisingly, fourth-year swing tackle Thayer Munford played 51 snaps on Thursday and received the lowest Pro Football Focus grade (36.6) of anyone on the offensive line.
It’s early, but if the Raiders are planning to get the most from first-round pick Ashton Jeanty, they better figure out how to block for him between now and the start of the regular season.
x: @raidersbeat
Carroll needs to pull his head out of his *** and strengthen the oline or we in for another rotten year.
So, Carroll and his “professional” coaches, and the GM, are FINALLY seeing what the fans have known for the past few seasons! It’s not just the coaching, there’s a lack of talent along the OL! Unfortunately, too late to do anything about it this season. MAYBE they jell and show improvement as the season goes on and they don’t get Jeanty and Smith hurt?! SMH
Kolton Miller at LT and Meredith at C ARE PURE GARBAGE.
Meredith was getting his **** pushed in and Miller looked like a turnstile.
The defense couldn’t contain the runs of an undrafted walk on.
Raiders should be doing everything they can to acquire Micah Parsons.
Tyree Wilson is pure *** and straight trash.
Lots of things to clean up but Miller and Meredith are going to be real.problems going forward, Meredith especially if he somehow stays at C.
This is what I said on August 6th. Any questions?
Bill Gregory says:
August 6, 2025 at 2:56 pm
OakTown, you have it right.
First, the other 3 teams, in our division, made the playoffs last year.
Second, our offensive line gave up 50 sacks last year and, at best, IS a work in progress. The Kansas City Chiefs forfeited a chance to win another Super Bowl because they couldn’t protect Patrick Mahomes. Until this group is fixed, the Raiders won’t be going anywhere.
Third, anyone who believes that lead footed and inconsistent Adian O’Connell is a viable option at second string quarterback is taking too much medication.
This new Raiders management needs to be realistic about what this team is and what it’s going to take to make them what optimism alone can’t make them and that is competitive. I have been advocating, all off-season, that the Raiders need to make a trade with the New England Patriots for 31 year old, battle tested, experienced and mobile Joshua Dobbs. Adian O’Connell couldn’t run around a corner and has zero escapability.
The greatness of Al Davis was his ability to realistically look at, assess and address the weaknesses of his team and then fix those areas of concern. Current Raiders management needs to do the same thing. There are major shortcomings on this team ie. linebackers, cover corners, offensive linemen and back-up quarterback to name a few.
Chip Kelly’s offensive brilliance is about to be wasted because of substandard personnel on the offensive line. Patrick Graham’s defensive schemes are about to be neutralized due to marginal defensive players. Even Pete Carroll’s effervescence can’t overcome these glaring inadequacies.
So, start the 3 year makeover this year with solid, youthful players who are the future and jettison the ineffective ones like Tyree Wilson, trade Kolton Miller while he still has some trade value. When Andy Reed went to the Kansas City Chiefs he had to build from the ground up. So did Jimmy Johnson when he went to the Dallas Cowboys and so did Bill Walsh with the San Francisco 49ers. Start now, right now!!!
No oline for O’Connell to work with and no disrespect but Dobbs sucks that’s why he is a career journeyman backup.
It’s way too early to make any judgments on Jeanty, and it’s only partially fair to judge the line based on a single preseason game (because most of them have real game experience), but yeah… Pretty ugly. Most teams have realized that rushing success is largely context dependent. How good is your offensive line at run blocking? How efficient is your passing game? Is the scheme good? How much time time are you playing ahead or from behind? There is a reason the 49ers usually have such a potent rushing attack, lead by guys taken late in the draft, who still seem to put up monster efficiency numbers…. It’s all the other stuff.
This is the danger of taking a back at #6 when your team has so many other needs. Jeanty doesn’t have the luxury of those excuses. He needs to be successful regardless of the above, and accrual make the rest of the offense more efficient. Guys like that are rare. Jeanty is that kind of prospect, but only time will tell if he can be that kind of pro. I hope he can do it. Running backs like that are fun, as anyone old enough to have watched Barry Sanders remembers.
Oh no, the O line looked sloppy with the team experimenting with different players combos! Let’s panic everyone!! 🤡🤡🤣🤣
No panic here!!! I’m cool with the process, Brock last year jeanty this year!! Good draft 2 years think about it!! If we took nick instead of Wilson??? To go with mad MAX!!
We should have brought in more O-Linemen via free agency, especially early, when there was some decent talent available. We had the cap space, KC seems to have done a more effective upgrade to their line with a lot less. I guess the games will be the true measure. I always worry when the term “Coach up” is used, because that’s usually ego talking.