One of the biggest reasons why the Raiders were able to make a jump as a team last season was due to their improvement on the offensive line. More specifically, the team made a massive improvement at the left guard position.
From 2016-2018, Kelechi Osemele filled that left guard spot for the Raiders. However, he was starting to become more injury-prone and his play declined in a big way over the last two seasons in the Silver and Black.
The Raiders eventually moved on from Osemele during the 2019 offseason and replaced him with Richie Incognito, who retired before the 2018 season. Despite serving a two-game suspension, Incognito quickly established himself as one of the best guards in football.
According to Pro Football Focus, Incognito was the second-best pass-protecting guard in the NFL last season and he finished as a top-15 guard in the NFL. In fact, it was one of the best seasons of Incognito’s career as he was rarely beaten all year. Take a look at the site’s thoughts on the former Pro Bowl guard from last season:
Left guard Richie Incognito returned to the NFL after one year off to post the highest pass-blocking grade of his career at 88.5 — good for second-best among guards — while also ranking eighth in percentage of positively graded run blocks. He allowed just nine pressures on 432 attempts.
With Incognito returning for the 2020 season, the Raiders have arguably the league’s best interior offensive line with Rodney Hudson and Gabe Jackson entrenched as starters. If left tackle Kolton Miller can continue to improve like he did last season, there is no reason why this can’t be the best offensive line in all of the NFL.
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