Yeah, there were a lot of questions about this team this Raiders team this season. But one thing seemed without question to be a glaring problem — the offensive line. And four weeks in, that problem is proving to be possible even worse than anyone predicted.
That’s a saying a lot too considering it was pretty obvious this group was going to have serious issues.
The only steady spot has been left tackle with Kolton Miller. And that was the only spot that was expected to be steady. Next to him was initially supposed to be 38-year-old Richie Incognito coming off consecutive injury shortened seasons. He then suffered an injury in camp and was replaced by second-year former fourth round pick John Simpson.
The entire right side of the line was traded away from the center to the right tackle. Gone is arguably the best center in the league in Rodney Hudson, replaced by former undrafted tackle Andre James. Gone is veteran guard Gabe Jackson, replaced by spot starter Denzelle Good. Then Good went down with an injury and was replaced by newly added Jermaine Eluemunor. Gone is veteran Trent Brown, replaced by rookie Alex Leatherwood.
Trading Brown was the one move that had to be made. He was showing up out of shape and constantly injured while making a ton of money in the process. But that doesn’t mean replacing him with Leatherwood was going to be an instant upgrade.
“Well, look, he’s a work in progress. He’s competing,” Jon Gruden said of Leatherwood. “He does have some things to clean up, as we all do. But he’s mentally tough, he’s athletic. I think he’ll continue to get better and better the more he plays, but there is going to be some growing pains. He’s athletic, he’s long armed. He’s got some strength. We just got to have more consistency from everybody me included.”
Youth and inexperience across the line made the group a risky proposition. Especially when they are replacing what was one of the best overall offensive lines in football for the past few years.
“We knew we were going to be young up front to start the year, but we lost a couple guards. It’s not been easy,” said Jon Gruden. “We brought in some new players that we really didn’t even have during training camp. So, it’s a work in progress and it’s not easy. It’s a tough thing to do in this league, running the football. And we’re going to continue to work at it and get better at it.”
Through the first three games, the Raiders were able to get by and pull out wins despite the issues on the offensive line. Monday Night, they were not. Carr was sacked four times, the run game went nowhere, and the offense couldn’t get moving for all but two drives early in the third quarter.
Even with the other three wins, they had to come back late due to poor starts. Jon Gruden points to the elephant(s) in the room for the issue.
“There is obvious things that we have to do,” Gruden said. “We have to pass protect better early in games. Sometimes it’s been a number of things. We’ve had errant shotgun snaps. I’ve got to call some better plays no doubt. We got to get our running game going at some point early in a game, but we just haven’t done very well early in games, let’s be honest, and that needs to change.”
There are some potentially decent options currently on the team should Gruden reach the end of his patience with this current group.
Left guard Richie Incognito will be out at least another couple weeks, but should he return full, he could help. But he’s still 38 and hasn’t played a full season since 2017. Denzelle Good could potentially return at some point as well. Veteran former starter Nick Martin is waiting in the wings at center should James continue to struggle. And there’s always backup swing tackle Brandon Parker in case anyone wants to see if he’s developed.
Other than that, the best option would be, rather ironically, to make a trade to acquire a proven player. But it doesn’t really sound like Gruden is crazy about that idea at present.
“We’re considering all options, but we like our linemen. We really do. We did have some pretty good outings. We are not going to hit the panic button. We got to keep coaching. We got to keep developing these guys and sometimes the medicine is what we all need. We all need a taste of that medicine even though we don’t like the taste. You got to get back to work, you got to get back on the horse. That horse will throw you off once in awhile and if you know anything about [Joey] Bosa and some of these guys in this league, they are pretty good at throwing you off your horse. So, you got to be mentally tough and keep fighting.”
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