The Raiders are just three games into the season, but it’s already starting to feel like panic time when it comes to their offensive line.
The Raiders’ have struggled in all phases of blocking and their top priority this week is most likely going to be figuring out why the offensive line has been so ineffective.
The good news is that Jackson Powers-Johnson should be back in the starting lineup this week, but according to former Raiders’ color commentator Lincoln Kennedy, the team will still be looking to free agency for offensive line help.
“Right now, the Raiders don’t even have a true starting five, so how can they make changes? Go to whom? You want to try people off the street?” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast.
“I heard that’s probably what they’re going to be doing… bringing in a few free agents to try them,” Kennedy continued. “And until you get them in the lineup and see what they’re going to do, you have no idea how they’re going to do with the rest of the guys. So before you go shopping… you’re going to have to put up with it until the next payday because there’s really nothing out there that’s just flowing. You look at the rest of the offensive lines, there were a lot of offensive lines that had bad games this weekend.”
It’s too late in the process to make any major personnel moves along the offensive line, and GM John Spytek’s conservative approach in the offseason to addressing the offensive line isn’t looking like his best decision.
For reasons that haven’t been entirely explained, the coaching staff had a tough time settling on a starting offensive line in training camp and the Powers-Johnson saga was one that no one seemed to see coming.
As of now, it sounds like Powers-Johnson will remain at right guard when he is officially back to full strength, and Wednesday’s practice will offer a clearer picture to what the coaching staff is planning to do with JPJ and the entire offensive line going forward.
x: @raidersbeat
All offensive lines look good going against second team defenses in practice.
Everybody in the WORLD… not just the League or Raider fans have Known the OL Stinks for at least 2 Years. Also EVERYBODY knows that Games are won in the trenches…. SO…
Why is the OL play and the record, so far, any Surprise? Even with Pete, this Team is still operated by DUMMIES!!!!
BTW Pete hire a Competant O-Line Coach instead of just Handing your Amatuer Son the Position!!! This is the NFL Pete – not Pop Warner!!!
Maybe JPJ just isn’t as good as we all expected either. There has been an assumption based on his prospect status that he’s a building block, but while he was nowhere near as bad as he’s looked this year, he wasn’t anything special last year either. It’s only been one game this year, but he looked lost a few times on defensive stunts and games, and if he provided any push in the running game, it didn’t seem to show up in the results for the rushing attack.
So far, it’s been a lot of talk and not enough production to match.
Go back to last years oline. If the young guys they drafted aren’t ready..Not sure how much they can do this year. For next season though DJ Glaze would kick in to Guard, he played it in college. And I would use my first two picks in the next draft on the best oline and dline players available.
While he may be a nice guy and a past Super Bowl winning coach, Pete Carroll, and his son, are not the long term solution, for the Raiders. What has been lacking, for the Raiders for years, is a short and long term plan. Raiders ownership has tried, unsuccessfully, to address long term fixes by hiring a number of unsuccessful coaches and General Managers. Obviously, Raiders ownership has made epic bad choices for these positions. Admittedly, hiring good coaching and management personnel is not an exact science and naming names, of these bad choices won’t help either. Al Davis famously said; “The greatness of the Raiders is their future.” No team has suffered more, since their last Super Bowl win than the New York Jets. Before that, it took the Kansas City Chiefs 50 years to win their second Super Bowl. To me, Raiders ownership should be asking itself, right now, “Who will succeed Pete Carroll; why aren’t our scouts scrutinizing small school players from all over the country?
Lots of people believe that round one and two draft picks are the best players to draft. I assert, however, that the majority of any team’s players are not made up of first and second round draft picks. I could name hundreds of late round and even undrafted players who became the bedrocks of their respective teams; Julian Edelman undrafted from Kent State, the first man to win six Super Bowl Rings, a fourth round draft pick from James Madison University, Charles Haley. undrafted Super Bowl winning quarterback Kurt Warner. seven time Super Bowl winning quarterback who was selected 199th in his draft class, Tom Brady and the list goes on and on. Jerry Rice from Mississippi Valley State, Walter Peyton from Jackson State, Marshall Faulk from San Diego State, Art Shell from Townson, Patrick Mahomes from Texas A&M, Josh Allen from Wyoming.
For whatever reason, the Green Bay Packers seem to continually trade for, recruit, draft and acquire players that keep that team consistently competitive. Surely, if the smallest market team, in the NFL, can routinely field a competitive team then large pockets can’t solely be the answer. Look at the Dallas Cowboys, the richest NFL franchise, for whatever reason their great wealth can’t help them field a consistent playoff team. My point is that money alone can’t make a team competitive but a consistent and long term strategy can. Bluster, bloviation, hyperbole and a 4 billion dollar stadium can’t suffice for bad decision making, on a managerial level.
With respect to Raiders ownership and fielding a competitive team, I defer to Act 1 Scene 4 of the play Hamlet where Marcellus makes the statement; “Something is rotten in Denmark.”
Fire Brennan Carroll. He has no business at all in the NFL. Alex Cappa is beyond awful, Parham is awful, Glaze is awful. Miller is just OK nothing special. Meredith at C has been a disaster so far. And the guy this coaching staff decided to put in it’s doghouse? Jackson Powers-Johnson who is easily the best lineman among them.
What is this coaching staff doing? It looks incompetent.
THE RAIDERS CAN SOLVE THE O-LINE PROBLEM BY BENCHING {LG}DYLAN PARHAM/{RT}DJ GLAZE •••REPLACE THEM WITH ROOKIES {OG}CALEB ROGERS/AND {OT}CHARLES GRANT
Okay Pete ,if you can’t fire your son, then demote him!