The Oakland Raiders finally have solid bookends at the offensive tackle position, and the duo is putting on a clinic early in the 2019 season.
The Oakland Raiders offensive tackles have been a position in which they invested a lot of time and money into the past two seasons. During the 2018 NFL Draft, they selected Kolton Miller with their first round pick, and then went out and spent big money to bring Trent Brown here via free agency in 2019.
After two weeks of action, we can officially say they are much improved and could be the top duo in the NFL. In the entire NFL, only 15 of 78 offensive tackles haven’t allowed a quarterback sack or hit, and two of the 15 include both starting offensive tackles of the Raiders:
The table below shows Kolton Miller has played in 117 total snaps and Trent Brown 104. Both guys have been the biggest reasons as to why Derek Carr hasn’t been sacked nearly as much as he was last year.
So far, Carr has been sacked only three times in two games. His current pace is 24 sacks, and that would be a huge improvement from a year ago, where he was sacked over 50 times.
| Name | Team | Snaps Offense | Snaps Pass Block | Sacks + Hits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kolton Miller | OAK | 117 | 71 | 0 |
| Trent Brown | OAK | 104 | 60 | 0 |
| Tyron Smith | DAL | 134 | 71 | 0 |
| Anthony Castonzo | IND | 133 | 68 | 0 |
| Mitchell Schwartz | KC | 143 | 94 | 0 |
| Bobby Massie | CHI | 131 | 87 | 0 |
| D.J. Humphries | ARZ | 145 | 110 | 0 |
| La’el Collins | DAL | 137 | 71 | 0 |
| Ronnie Stanley | BLT | 139 | 73 | 0 |
| Jack Conklin | TEN | 118 | 70 | 0 |
| Taylor Moton | CAR | 141 | 99 | 0 |
| Mike McGlinchey | SF | 137 | 63 | 0 |
| Brian O’Neill | MIN | 118 | 53 | 0 |
| Bryan Bulaga | GB | 132 | 79 | 0 |
| Joe Staley | SF | 116 | 62 | 0 |
To take that a step further, the case can also be made that two of those three sacks were against backups, and had it not been backups, Carr might have been kept clean all game.
Denzelle Good, a short term replacement for starter Gabe Jackson, got his butt kicked all game against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2. He gave up the Raiders first sack of 2019. Another backup, Brandon Parker, allowed the second sack of the 2019 season.
Parker, a 3rd round pick a year ago, came in for Trent Brown, who was injured trying to make the tackle after Derek Carr’s second interception late in the third quarter. The Trent Brown injury could be a big one, but it doesn’t look too bad. “He has a sore knee as well,” Gruden said of Brown. “He’s being evaluated. We’ve got some guys that are beat up, but we don’t believe we have anything serious, although some guys could not finish the game.”
It’s great news that Brown was able to walk around because when Jon Gruden came here in 2018, one of his top priorities was to get a good set up young offensive tackles, which was his reasoning of choosing Kolton Miller over Derwin James, and making Trent Brown the highest-paid RT in the NFL.
It looks like Jon Gruden has finally fixed up his offensive tackles with two young guys. Miller 23, and Brown 26, have helped this offensive line turn out 4.8 yards per rush, which ties them for 10th best in the NFL.
If these tackles keep building together, Oakland can have one of the best offensive lines in the NFL with Rodney Hudson, Gabe Jackson and Richie Incognito in the middle of the offensive line. We will see what this young tandem can do against a tough Minnesota team next week.