Sin City Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders had a busy offseason as Mark Davis took the Silver and Black in a new direction and seemingly took the complete opposite approach as he did one year ago. First-year head coach Antonio Pierce is gone and replacing the inexperienced “A.P.” is the very experienced Pete Carroll, who is entering his 19th year as an NFL head coach. The Raiders are also taking a new approach to the most important position on the field. A year ago the quarterback competition was between the up-and-coming Aidan O’Connell and the scrappy journeyman Gardner Minshew. There will be no such competition this time around.

Pete Carroll wasted little time in upgrading a position that has haunted the Raiders for quite some time now. Regardless of your opinion of Derek Carr, he brought stability to the quarterback position for a decade. Since his release with two games to play in 2022, the Raiders have tried to solve their quarterback problem with an overpaid Jimmy Garoppolo (who is now holding a clipboard for the Rams), a should-have-been-retired Brian Hoyer, the previously mentioned fourth-round pick and the journeyman who has been a backup more than a starter.

Although Pete Carroll doesn’t act his age, as he went viral this summer for suddenly pinning his players on the field as if making an attempt for the WWE 24/7 (or “Hardcore” in the old days) Championship, he must have looked at the Raiders’ recent quarterback play and thought to himself “I’m too old for this.” The 74 year-old head coach quickly traded a third-round pick for Geno Smith. Although Smith has had an up-and-down career, Carroll brought out the best in Geno during their several years together in Seattle. The head coach and veteran quarterback reunite in Las Vegas and hope to duplicate the success they have had in the past.

The Raiders also took a very different approach from last year in how they hired an offensive coordinator this year. Gone is the Chicago Bears’ castoff Luke Getsy and in is Chip Kelly; fresh off of winning a National Championship at Ohio State. It seemed Getsy only got the job because of his previous relationship with Davante Adams (see how well that worked out for both of them). We do not yet know how the Kelly experiment will work for the Silver and Black, but Getsy set a low bar with an offense that averaged 3.5 yards per carry and 76.9 rushing yards per game before Getsy’s midseason dismissal.

To help Kelly and Carroll revitalize the Raiders’ run game, the Silver and Black added one of the NFL Draft’s most exciting prospects with the selection of Ashton Jeanty. His college numbers at Boise State are comparable to elite running backs of the past such as Barry Sanders. Jeanty’s average yards per carry in 2024 basically doubles what the Raiders were running for under Getsy’s watch.

The selection of Jeanty is the second time in as many years that the Raiders added one of the draft’s most impressive playmakers following the 2024 selection of Brock Bowers. A tight end on paper, Bowers became the the Silver and Black’s leading receiver in his rookie year. He caught 25 more passes than Jakobi Meyers; who also had a strong year despite the team’s quarterback play. If Bowers (1,194) and Meyers (1,027) were able to go for over 1,000 yards while catching passes from O’Connell, Minshew and Desmond Ridder, imagine what they can do with Geno Smith under center.

Looking at the upgrades at coach, coordinator, quarterback and running back as well as the breakout star at tight end, one could be excited for the new-look 2025 Las Vegas Raiders. But there is one group we have not yet looked at and it could be the group that either hoists this offense to new heights or brings the whole thing crashing down with them.

By most measures, 2024 was a forgettable year for the offensive line. Along with Getsy, line coach James Cregg was fired nine games into the season as they poorly attempted to be a zone-running team. Second-round rookie Jackson Powers-Johnson, the Rimington Award winner of 2023 (the best center in college football), lined up at guard and was rated by PFF as the 56th-best in a group of 136. Veteran Kolton Miller took some time to get right as previous injuries and the effects of offseason surgery continued to linger. Miller’s fellow bookend at right tackle, Thayer Munford, was replaced by rookie D.J. Glaze after Munford went down to injury. Also missing time to injury was center Andre James and guard Dylan Parham.

Whether the coaching is solely to blame or they just needed more time with a healthy unit, 2024 was a terrible year. The line, and the offense as a whole, looked better after Getsy was replaced by Scott Turner, but as mentioned earlier, the bar was set pretty low and an offseason of change was needed.

Although Davis, Carroll, Kelly and to an extent Tom Brady have worked to improve the offense by trading for Geno Smith, drafting Ashton Jeanty along with receivers Jack Bech and Dont’e Thornton Jr., and made the decision that Michael Mayer is not available in a trade and that they will keep Mayer and Brock Bowers in the tight end room, there was not much of an effort to upgrade in the trenches. They were quick to sign Alex Cappa after the Bengals let him go, but that was not a sign of things to come. Cappa was the most significant addition and it was not just salary cap reasons that got him released. His play was down by most measures in 2024. Caleb Rogers and Charles Grant were drafted back-to-back at 98 and 99 overall, but both rookies are seen more as projects than starters at this point.

The Raiders’ decision-makers are taking a gamble worthy of attention even in Las Vegas by going into 2025 with much of the same group that allowed 50 sacks and struggled to run-block as the team averaged 3.6 yards per carry last season.

Going into training camp, the projected starting five could be Kolton Miller (one of the league’s better left tackles throughout the 2020s), Jordan Meredith (who had limited playing time in 2024 but was rated as the NFL’s 10th-best guard by PFF during that time), Jackson Powers-Johnson (now focusing on center), Alex Cappa (signed to a two year, $12 million contract but allowed 8 sacks last season and was rated 111th out of 136 guards by PFF), and D.J. Glaze (thrown into the fire as a rookie due to injury and rated by PFF as the 50th-best tackle out of 140).

It is early in the offseason for predicting the starting five up front since the pads don’t come on until training camp. And Pete Carroll has stated that there will be competition and there certainly is at the guard spots. Carroll has named Meredith and Cappa but also Dylan Parham (who dealt with injuries last year but was rated as the 24th-best guard by PFF for the games he played) and also Thayer Munford Jr. (replaced by D.J. Glaze last year after getting injured, but has been seen as a tackle who could be moved to guard) as players to watch at those two spots. So we have some time before we know with certainty what the starting five will be.

Aside from Cappa and the two rookies who are unlikely to be starters, the line returns the same group as last season, and Cappa isn’t an “upgrade” as much as he is a new face. It is true that many things went wrong last year between scheme and injuries. Now, Powers-Johnson is focusing on playing center rather than being an all-around “interior o-lineman”, Miller’s reputation precedes him, Parham and Meredith could be a good duo of young guards and Glaze could improve going into his second season. Each individual has reason for optimism, but as a group this will be much of the same personnel as a year ago. Will new coaching and more experience for the young linemen be enough to improve this unit from how it was last year? The Raiders are betting on it.