Last Sunday saw the long awaited debut of Raiders rookie Jackson Powers-Johnson. The 2023 Rimington Award winner entered the game in the third quarter at right guard and played a total of 21 snaps. And according to head coach Antonio Pierce, the rookie performed well enough to see increased snaps moving forward.
Coming in at right guard was a bit of a surprise considering that’s Dylan Parham’s position and Parham has actually looked better than most of the Raiders linemen this season so far and JPJ had originally been playing at left guard.
It was an undisclosed injury that kept Powers-Johnson out of the lineup in preseason and an illness that caused him to miss the first two games. In his absence, veteran Cody Whitehair has lined up at left guard much of the time.
The Raiders have experimented a couple times this season with the offensive line. In Week two, it was Andrus Peat who got the start at left guard. But he was so bad, by the third quarter, they put Whitehair back in.
It doesn’t seem to matter what personnel is out there, the Raiders run game has gone nowhere. And the pass protection hasn’t been great either.
Wednesday, head coach Antonio Pierce admitted the team is still in the process of a steep learning curve with regard to the new zone blocking scheme, suggesting the players on the field is not the issue.
Had Powers-Johnson been healthy, he would have been the starter from day one. The only thing that would keep him from taking over that job now would not wanting to disrupt solid play from the current group. And, yeah, that’s certainly not happening.
At this point it certainly couldn’t hurt to get their second round rookie in the game. And if Pierce liked what he saw, perhaps starting him could really help things.