One of Pete Carroll’s biggest blunders as head coach of the Raiders was essentially every decision that involved the offensive line.
Not only did the offensive line underperform under Carroll’s watch, but the coaching staff was never able to figure out where their offensive linemen belonged.
Injuries played a part in the jumbled offensive line by the end of the season, but the trend was set in training camp when the coaching staff couldn’t figure out what to do with Jackson Powers-Johnson.
Powers-Johnson was essentially the ‘black sheep’ of the offensive line until he was sent to injured reserve in November and even beat writers around the team questioned why the coaching staff seemed to target the former second-round pick in just his second NFL season.
In the first month of the season, the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore was the first to describe Powers-Johnson as being “singled out” by the coaching staff.
“I did talk to Jackson Powers-Johnson, got a chance to talk to Jackson today. He hasn’t gotten any feedback on why he’s in the situation that he’s in,” Bonsignore said on the Vegas Nation First and 10 podcast in September.
“We all know that he’s been, I guess, singled out… from center, compete for the center job. Nope, we’re going to go with Jordan Meredith. Now you’re going to go over to right guard to compete with Alex Cappa, a competition that Pete Carroll has maintained continues. I mean, those are his words. That’s not happening at left tackle. That’s not happening at left guard. It’s not happening at right tackle.”
“It’s basically Jackson Powers-Johnson who’s been identified as somebody that needs to keep fighting for his job and fighting for playing time,” Bonsignore continued. He has not gotten any feedback from his words to me about why that is, and all he could do is keep putting his best foot forward. He’s open to playing guard, center, defensive line… I would not say that he was happy about it. I could tell. I’ve been doing this a long time.”
In the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, Powers-Johnson was a player that was brought up as a potential trade candidate, and it was no secret at the time that teams were inquiring about him.
Based on an ESPN report on Tuesday, it sounds like it may have been John Spytek who shut down trade conversations around Powers-Johnson.
From ESPN’s Kalyn Kahler and Ryan McFadden, the Raiders’ coaching staff and front office (presumably Spytek) weren’t on the same page with what to do with Powers-Johnson.
“An executive for another NFL club said his team was interested in trading for Powers-Johnson, a second-year player who was drafted by the previous regime. He wondered why the Raiders coaching staff wasn’t playing the young player with potential at center and had moved him to guard. When his club’s trade efforts were rejected, the executive said it was clear to him that Vegas’ coaching staff and front office were on different pages,” the ESPN report said.
“‘Spytek knows that he has a pretty young, talented interior lineman,’ the executive said. ‘They are not where they want to be in that position group, but they didn’t come close to maximizing it. They actually have some good young players, and they should have been more functional.'”
The report didn’t specifically say Spytek halted trade conversations around Powers-Johnson, but it’s noteworthy that Spytek was the Raiders’ executive mentioned as someone understanding the team has young talented interior linemen.
Furthermore, if it wasn’t Spytek who shot down JPJ trade offers, who else would it have been?
It seems like a fair assessment to credit Spytek on this one.
x: @raidersbeat
And here I thought Josh McDoofus was the most brain dead coach the Raiders could enlist. Boy was I wrong! Pete was either purposely dragging the Silver and Black down or he has lost his mind.
JPJ played pretty good at center his rookie year and when OTA started up he spoke of how much better his second year was gonna be coming in at center instead of playing a few different places on the line his first year due to injuries.. so when he ended his first year playing center the last few games he assumed he’d pick up where he left off and coach Peter didn’t like the assumption and bounced the kid.
This was a big gead scratcher! Ashton Jeanty averaged over 5 yds per run when JPJ was in the lineup. Thank God the people with common sense woke up and fired Pete! They need to clean house of most of there coaches. I like Patrick Graham, and they should keep him Pete Fuc$Ed that up too, along with our offense. I never liked him, and thought it was a big mistake bringing him in, on top of the Raiders wasting a 3rd pick on Genos sorry A$$
Jackson power Johnson is it valuable asset Pete Carroll company as shown they did not know what the hell they were doing and Pete Carroll brought in the old guys from Seattle Jackson power was still better than them guys it was Carol’s son that was the problem I’m glad they’re gone, Raider Nation
Raiders should be watching the game tomorrow night Fernando Mendoza plays against Oregon defense again, Dante Moore will be playing against Indiana defense again a rematch with a lot at stake I believe Fernando is the better quarterback we are finding out the quarterbacks that do a lot of running around taking hits, you need a quarterback that can stand in the pocket make the passes with accuracy and be able to get out of the pocket and scramble to extend the play, I believe Dante Moore is not the answer he needs to stay in college at least one more year to improve his game, we have seen running quarterbacks from Lamar to Daniels take hits and be out and miss several games and having a great offensive line will help a lot and having someone like JPJ at center is one of the pieces to having a great line to protect the QB and open up holes for the RBs like Genty to run like he did we saw flashes of his running but you got to make the right choice at QB
I’m so happy that Pete Carroll and his NEPO BABIES are no longer playing ‘coach’ for The Raiders.
They were bumbling fools that oozed ineptitude.
The mishandling of JPJ was absurd. He’s obviously their best young OL with All-Pro potential.
Let’s not forget how badly Pete screwed up Maxx Crosby’s relationship with The Raiders. Hopefully, whomever becomes the next head coach will be able to ‘mend the broken fence’ and keep Mad Maxx in the fold.