Brandon Parker showed up in Oakland a year ago as one of the more unrefined rookies in the draft. Not only did he need to make the adjustment from North Carolina A&T to professional football, but Parker still needed to fill out his physical frame to play tackle in the NFL.
In fact, his slender build was one of the reasons Parker didn’t receive any offers from top college football programs out of high school. And when he was drafted by the Raiders, Parker was still considerably underweight at 305 pounds.
The offseason solution, though, has apparently come in the form of dinner dates (no, not that kind of dinner dates) with fellow Raiders O-lineman Gabe Jackson.
“He came with me down here and got an apartment,” Jackson told The Athletic’s Vic Tafur of Parker. “It was the second or third week in January. I told him to come with me to work out in the offseason and get stronger… He is a young guy, and I don’t want to bash the program that he came into the league with, but he didn’t have the right tools to work with. I just wanted to help him and offer whatever knowledge I could. He is up to 330 now. He’s gotten good and strong. We work out once a day, five days a week.“
Parker, of course, isn’t the only Raiders lineman trying to gain weight in the offseason. Kolton Miller was drafted at around 310 pounds and offensive line coach Tom Cable said last year ago that Miller should be playing around 335 pounds.
We’ll get an offseason update on Miller sooner or later, but hopefully he’s been making dinner dates (no, not that kind) with Rodney Hudson since the season ended.
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