The Las Vegas Raiders' offensive line struggled in Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season against the New England Patriots. Granted, the Patriots have an incredibly strong defensive front, as players like Milton Williams and Harold Landry III wrecked the game a bit on opening weekend.
Fortunately, the Raiders still escaped with a victory, but they won't have as much breathing room this week against the Los Angeles Chargers. The lights will be brighter as well, considering this is a primetime Monday Night Football matchup.
Las Vegas' offensive line simply has to be better in Week 2, and outside of Kolton Miller, the rest of the group has massive room to improve. Miller, however, will have a huge test awaiting him on Monday in the form of a former Raider.
Raiders must prevent Khalil Mack from wrecking yet another game
Khalil Mack, who was an offseason teammate of a rookie Miller before being traded in 2018, has seemingly found the fountain of youth with the Chargers. He has also absolutely wrecked the game in three of his previous four matchups with the Raiders.
In Week 1 of last season, Mack recorded 2.0 sacks, five total pressures, a run stop and a batted pass. Granted, Miller was a bit hobbled in this game as he recovered from injury, but this earned Mack a Pro Football Focus grade of 87.2.
During his two matchups against the Raiders in 2023, Mack earned PFF grades of 92.3 and 83.4 after having two monstrous games. In the first matchup, he had 6.0 sacks, nine total pressures and a batted pass, and in the second, he had five pressures, a batted pass and two run stops.
RELATED: Raiders' Michael Mayer had the best game of his NFL career in Week 1
This is complete and utter dominance from Mack against his old team. Fortunately, in Week 18 of last year, Mack finally looked human, recording an average PFF grade of 62.5 and recording just two pressures, both of which were mere hurries.
Hopefully, this was the beginning of a trend, and Miller has finally figured out a way to mitigate Mack's unique and powerful pass-rush technique. If so, this would knock off the head of the snake, per se, and it could go a long way in the Raiders pulling off the improbable upset.
If not, it may be another long game for Las Vegas against its former star. Miller and DJ Glaze need to bring their absolute best on Monday to keep Mack in check; otherwise, he could wreck the entire game yet again.