Who is Andre James and where did he come from?
The story of Andre James’s career is one of an underdog persevering and overcoming great odds to become a potential starter in the NFL. James was a four-star recruit out of Utah who chose to play for UCLA over offers from other notable schools like USC, Oregon, Ohio State, and Oklahoma.
James redshirted for his freshman season and became a starter in his second year after an injury to his current teammate and Raiders starting left tackle, Kolton Miller. After being plugged into the lineup, James started the final 32 games of his college career before choosing to forego his final year of eligibility to enter the draft.
The former UCLA Bruin was a tackle at the NCAA level but perhaps teams did not see his skillset translating to the NFL level at that position so he went undrafted and joined the Raiders as a free agent in 2019. The Raiders moved him from tackle to center and he went into the season as the backup to Rodney Hudson
James played in 12 games his rookie season and started a Week 9 matchup with the Detroit Lions which the Raiders won 31-24. In 2020, Hudson did not miss any time and James made no appearances on offense with all 82 of his snaps coming on special teams. Elevating James to a starting role will represent a massive jump for the third-year player and will be a great test of his development so far.