With former Raiders C Rodney Hudson entering the next chapter of his pro career, third-year center Andre James was chosen to take over in the middle of the offensive line.
From 2015 to the end of the ’20 season, the Las Vegas Raiders had an All-Pro at center; Rodney Hudson. In March of 2021, the team captain manning the center position requested them to move on to the next chapter of his pro career. Mike Mayock, who served as the general manager for the Silver and Black during this time, honored his request to find a new team by trading Hudson to the Arizona Cardinals.
Replacing Hudson was something Las Vegas knew would be difficult – Impossible, really. Mayock and the then head coach Jon Gruden had someone in mind, though, and he was already on the roster.
And so, the Andre James era began.
James wasn’t the only offensive lineman on the team to get his chance after the ’20 starter was traded, either. Both right guard Gabe Jackson and right tackle Trent Brown were shipped to a new destination as well, giving the Raiders an entirely new look on the right side of the line, matching the team’s first-year starting center.
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Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock were fond of the third-year Raider, but that doesn’t mean the new head coach and general manager tandem of Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler feel the same. After all, James did have some outright horrible moments last year, most notably at the beginning of the season.
Raiders’ new center struggles
Last year marked Andre James’ first season as a full-time starter, so it’s hard to get under his skin too much regarding his abysmal start. Still, there were plenty of head scratchers and downright inexcusable mistakes from the Raiders’ new center.
One of the biggest problems James’ had from the start of last season was snapping the ball to his quarterback, Derek Carr. It seemed like there was at least one instance a game during the first month of football where James snapped the ball over Carr’s head, causing either a fumble or a dead down. The reason it seemed that way is that that’s exactly what happened.
This was something James absolutely had to focus on moving forward, and to the 6’4 center’s credit, great progress was made here. This issue seemed to vanish as the season went on, and James found his rhythm when snapping the football.
It wasn’t only the snaps James struggled with.
When it came to blocking in general, James had a tough time. With a grade of 40.8 during the first six weeks of the season, including a run blocking grade of 38.1, no center across the league had a worse grade during this timeframe than the Raiders’ center, per Pro Football Focus.
Due to the start of the season being about as poor as it could be, the second half of James’ first year as a starter was a spectacle nobody could’ve seen coming.
Andre James improvement
Yes, the start of James’ season was a disaster. Horrible snaps combined with lackluster blocking led the third-year pro to start with the worst PFF grade for a center across the league, and it didn’t appear as if it would end anytime soon.
Suddenly, in the middle of the season – Almost as if by magic – everything turned around for the 24-year-old.
James’ blocking technique was much more sound, and his confidence was through the roof. Although he started with a 40.8 Pro Football Focus grade throughout the first six weeks, his grade between weeks seven and fifteen shot up to 77.9; A number that ranked him 6th in this timespan. The 38.1 run blocking grade he had early on skyrocketed as well, increasing to a top-10 grade of 76.3.
"“Andre James has emerged as one of the better Centers in the league”"
What had been a disastrous start turned into a display of dominance, seemingly out of thin air.
Not only was James entering his first season as a starter, but to his immediate left and right lay John Simpson and Jermain Eluemunor. Both of these players were filling in while the team’s starting guards suffered season-ending injuries, potentially contributing to James’s lack of initial success.
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Was his strong finish enough for the new duo of Ziegler and McDaniels to overlook the start? James’ signed an extension after the departure of Hudson, keeping him under contract until the ’23 season wraps up. In 2023, James’ cap hit peaks with the damage being $5,480,000; A bargain for a starting center, especially if he plays anything like he did the latter half of the 2021 season.