Throughout his tenures at USC and with the Seattle Seahawks, Pete Carroll tapped into a "culture of competition" pretty successfully. Starting jobs were earned, not given, and the Las Vegas Raiders needed that kind of culture badly ahead of the 2025 NFL season.
The configuration of the Raiders' offensive line, specifically the three interior spots, has been a talking point going back to OTAs. The arrangement that seemed obvious was turned upside down during training camp, with Jordan Meredith moved to center, Dylan Parham shifted to left guard and Jackson Powers-Johnson moved to right guard.
Regardless of where he plays, Powers-Johnson is undeniably the Raiders' second-best offensive lineman behind Kolton Miller. But the coaching staff has kept him in a competition with offseason free agent signing Alex Cappa at right guard, and the fallacy of that was further exposed during the game before the bye week.
The Raiders were outdone in every aspect by the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 7, so taking some key players off the field was in play. Powers-Johnson was notably pulled from the game earlier than anyone else, though, and after the game, Carroll was asked if an injury factored into that. Before the question was even finished, Carroll offered a short response.
"No, we took him out. We gave Alex a shot,” Carroll said.
Cappa started in Week 2 when Powers-Johnson was out due to a concussion, and again in Week 3, as Carroll made the excuse of a short week for why Powers-Johnson didn't take the starting job back after clearing protocol.
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It would appear Cappa has gotten his "shot" already, and he showed exactly what anyone who has watched him play in recent years expected, which was poor play. Unless Powers-Johnson is injured again, and there should be a better plan if that happens, everyone has seen enough of Cappa.
On a recent episode of the Locked on Raiders Squad Show, former All-Pro Raiders offensive tackle Lincoln Kennedy talked about the offensive line, his area of expertise. Like most fans, he believes Powers-Johnson is the second-best offensive lineman on the team after Miller.
"[Jackson Powers-Johnson] is your next best lineman, and we’re already talking about offensive line play as porous as it’s been," Kennedy said. "I feel for the young man, because this second-year guy went up against two All-Pro defensive tackles back-to-back weeks, and the offense did not give him any help. ... They did not address the situation that you had All-Pros at defensive tackle. 'Hey, let’s help out our young guard by doing some things differently. Some tandem blocks, try to put it on those defensive tackles.'”
For reasons that may never be fully known, Powers-Johnson has clearly not clicked with the new coaching staff in Las Vegas. But Kennedy knows that any idea of trading him at the deadline should be a dead end.
“I don’t know what’s going on in the locker room with JPJ. I really don’t. But you cannot get rid of him," Kennedy said. "He is going to be the mainstay, the main focal point for you, the future of this offensive line on this Raider team, and you have to build around that."
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Kennedy then put his voice to the prevailing sentiment about the situation, and added insult to injury about Cappa, who has arguably been the Raiders' worst offseason signing.
“Whatever JPJ is doing to keep himself off the field or whatever, he’s getting into in the locker room, whatever is happening needs to be ironed out and fixed because Alex Cappa is not the answer. So stop bringing him in games. I don’t know what’s going on, but they got to stop bringing him in games. He’s not the answer," Kennedy said.
Powers-Johnson is probably still in some level of competition with a clearly inferior player, while other players Carroll seemingly likes better are exempt from being held to a baseline standard of acceptable performance.
Maybe evaluation during the bye week will bring what Kennedy used his platform to call for. But it feels more likely that Powers-Johnson will continue to be made into a scapegoat for any struggles the offense has.