The Raiders have a position battle going on in the first week of August and it’s not one that many were predicting going into training camp.
For the majority of the first week of practices, Jackson Powers-Johnson was the starting center at training camp, and that’s something everyone was expecting. But somewhere along the line Jordan Meredith stepped in and started taking first-team reps, and now it seems like Meredith might be the favorite to win the job.
Las Vegas Review-Journal insider Vinny Bonsignore talked about the Raiders’ offensive line carousel over the weekend.
“It looks like Jordan Meredith… at least for now, [has] pretty firm control of the starting center job. He was back with the starters today, or I should just say, continued to be the starter today,” Bonsignore said after Saturday’s intrasquad scrimmage at Allegiant Stadium.
“I want to say this is his fourth or maybe fifth straight day, lining up with the starters at center,’ Bonsignore said of Meredith. “That might be a closed deal. We’ll see.”
“There’s always next week and we’ll see what happens. Maybe they’ll look at the film and not like what they see. I can’t imagine that they will. But there’s a rough snap early on, but I think he might have settled down… but for the most part, at least through now, it seems to be trending in the direction of Jordan Meredith as a starting center.”
As for Powers-Johnson, Bonsignore believes last year’s second-round pick might be moving to right guard permanently.
“[Powers-Johnson] was back with the starters at right guard to start the first drive with the first team today. But then when the first team offense came back on the field on the second drive, it was Alex Cappa and that started kind of a rotation for them. It got a little sketchy there,” Bonsignore said.
“It was kind of like a high school all-star baseball game. Our guys are coming in and out. So [you] lose a little bit of track, but at least for those first few, there was a rotation at right guard. So once again, Jackson Powers Johnson, on alert, on notice, whatever the case might be, he’s having a fight for his starting job here.”
x: @raidersbeat