The Raiders nearly selected an offensive lineman with their top pick as Ohio State OL Paris Johnson Jr. was picked one spot ahead of them. If he was available, the expectation (according to Peter King) was that he would be the pick.
But with Johnson off the board, the Raiders decided to go in a different direction in Round 1. The Raiders did not select another offensive lineman during the rest of the draft, which is a bit puzzling.
In a recent article by Pro Football Focus, they took a look at the least improved position groups coming out of the draft. To no surprise, the interior offensive line of the Raiders was mentioned:
Heading into the draft, Dylan Parham, Andre James and Alex Bars were slated to be the Raiders’ starting three interior offensive linemen. The issue here is that they produced PFF grades of 61.9, 62.8 and 45.4, so there was a need for some improvements here.
Parham was a rookie, and while he endured his struggles in pass protection, producing a 48.8 PFF pass-blocking grade, he did have some flashes throughout the year. Bars, on the other hand, has been in the NFL for four seasons, seeing 600-plus snaps in two of those, and has yet to produce a PFF season grade above 53.3.
The Raiders coming out of this draft with zero players on the interior of the offensive line was a major surprise.
The Raiders are really banking on their young players to step up in 2023 as they did nothing this offseason to improve the offensive line. The good news is that they were able to address the rest of their offense and add several quality defenders with the rest of the picks.
It’s certainly a bold strategy by Dave Ziegler and Josh McDaniels to ignore the offensive line to this degree. But it will be fascinating to see if that unit takes any steps forward during the 2023 season.
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