The Las Vegas Raiders suffered a 41-24 loss in Week 3 of the 2025 NFL season to the Washington Commanders, who were without second-year star quarterback Jayden Daniels. This was their worst performance of the season, as they fell to 1-2 against an offense led by backup Marcus Mariota.
While the defense and special teams had, by far, their worst respective showings of the season, the bigger concern was the play of the offensive line. The unit allowed five sacks, and Las Vegas finished with just 3.3 rushing yards per carry for the game.
Through three games, the Raiders' offensive line is tied for the second-most sacks allowed with 12, while their 3.1 yards per carry and 72.3 yards per game are both tied for the third-fewest in the NFL. Jackson Powers-Johnson was sidelined with a concussion in Week 2; however, he was back healthy in Week 3.
Raiders HC Pete Carroll shares update on Jackson Powers-Johnson
The 44th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft did not see the field on offense, however, as his only two snaps came on special teams. Powers-Johnson was cleared to return fully in Week 3, but Pete Carroll and Co. decided to start Alex Cappa instead.
As for why Carroll chose to start the veteran over the healthy and promising young player, the experienced head coach gave a bizarre answer when asked during the postgame press conference on Sunday.
"Just that it was a short week, and he just got back. Give Alex a chance to go again and see how that goes," Carroll said. "[Powers-Johnson] was available to play. We just decided, for the continuity of coming out of last week, that we might be a little bit smoother. We didn't hit any of the days this week, so we just felt like this was a better choice to go that way. The competition goes on."
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This is a disappointing answer for Raider Nation, as it seems like Cappa is getting more of a fair shot than Powers-Johnson is at this juncture. Cappa has gotten the start at the position in each of the past two games; however, his performance has been largely underwhelming.
There have been calls for the Raiders to move Dylan Parham back to right guard, while shifting Powers-Johnson to center and Jordan Meredith to left guard, which was an alignment that looked better than this year's group towards the end of 2024.
It is unclear, however, if the coaching staff has any interest in allowing the second-year interior offensive lineman to move back to the center position, where he thrives the most. Still, there is optimism that Powers-Johnson will at least return to the starting lineup in Week 4 against the Bears.