Remember when Jackson Powers-Johnson was the black sheep of the Raiders’ offensive line and barely held on to his job at the start of the season?
Well, Powers-Johnson is most likely out for the season with an ankle injury, and it seems the coaching staff has settled on a new target for their depth chart shenanigans.
The Raiders drafted Caleb Rogers in the third round of this year’s draft and the last two weeks have offered perfect opportunities to get him into the lineup. Rogers talked last week with a lot of enthusiasm, and he seemed confident that he was going to play against the Cowboys.
As it turned out, Rogers reportedly had a bad practice leading up to the game and was placed on the inactive list against the Cowboys. He was replaced on the roster by Atonio Mafi who, coincidentally, has a history with Chip Kelly.
This week against the Browns, the Raiders had every opportunity to play Rogers but found every excuse not to play him. With interior offensive linemen going down all around him, the coaching staff didn’t give Rogers a single snap in the game.
Play-by-play announcer Jason Horowitz said Rogers was visibly upset when the coaches put Will Putnam back into the game (after he had previously left the game) and moved Alex Cappa to right guard.
“Caleb Rogers was doing some warmups on the sideline. He thought he was going in,” Horowitz said on the Raiders postgame show.
“[But] they put Will Putnam back in the game when Jordan Meredith got hurt, and the put Cappa at right guard and Putnam went back in at center. Caleb Rogers was visibly frustrated. The entire team was to the right of the 50 [yard line] where the play was. He walked down the sideline and was consoled by a couple people on the other 40 and then turned and watched the play.”
Horowitz was gentle in his assessment of the situation, but Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers didn’t hold back with his thoughts on Rogers and the coaching staff after the game.
“You’re looking bad and you’re not developing anybody at the same time or at least seeing what they have. Like nothing, the rhyme and reason is not making any kind of sense,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders podcast.
“We did the show last week. Make sense of what doesn’t make sense. All this continues to not make sense. It really does. I don’t know what the big issues are. And I know… the report was out and I say report in air quotes. ‘Oh, Caleb Rogers looks so bad in practice. He couldn’t get the basics.’ I don’t buy that. If I’m at the barbershop, I’m bringing the bell on that,” Myers continued.
“That’s something that we do in the barbershop. Whenever someone says something that’s just out of line and like that’s false or just stupid, right? Dumb idea, BS, whatever you want to call it, ring the bell on them. That’s what we say. That’s what I’m saying when that report came out about Caleb Rogers…”
“This is a guy that was like a super senior at Texas Tech, right? He had so much experience. You made him a third-round pick and you’re telling me that he wasn’t even good enough to dress on Monday against the Cowboys? He couldn’t even go in for a couple reps on Sunday against the Browns when Meredith goes down?”
“What is really going on? And he was hot. And you could see him walking up and down the sideline. He was hotter than fish grease. But as soon as [Ashton] Jeanty got in the end zone, guess who was the biggest cheerleader for him? Out there supporting him. I mean, this dude, you could tell that he’s all in on the team. But it just seems like for some reason, the team’s not all in on him.”
Whatever is going on with Rogers, it makes no sense from the outside.
As Myers pointed out, there has to be something going on that we don’t know about because it’s hard to imagine anyone playing worse than what the Raiders put on the field on Sunday.
With Chip Kelly joining the unemployment line as of Sunday night, it will be interesting to see if the team’s approach changes with the offensive rookies.
Second-round pick Jack Bech has been one of the biggest disappointments of the 2025 draft, but considering he and so many other rookies aren’t being put on the field, how disappointed can we really be with them?
One thing that most would agree is true, though…
If you’re looking to get fired from your job as a coach in the NFL, lose games and bury on the bench the players your GM drafted.
Through 11 games this year, Pete Carroll has certainly accomplished both.
x: @raidersbeat
Pete Carroll is Washed Up – For not having accomplished much in the last 10 years… 3 playoff wins out of 9 games. Lots of Nice Wild Card Losses… Seattle knew he was through. When they dumped him… no one bit for over a Year until the Raiders… and look at this Mess. To Much Ego – Not enough result… even Rookie Coach AP had the team Playing Hard every Game. This franchise is an embarrasment…