The Las Vegas Raiders' offensive line has been a struggling unit all season. Without left tackle Kolton Miller, since he suffered an ankle injury in Week 4, second-year interior player Jackson Powers-Johnson has clearly been the team's best lineman.
This has been despite Pete Carroll doing his best to drive the opposite narrative in flimsy deference to his "always comePETE" culture that some players are immune to. Powers-Johnson was off to a nice start again against a tough Denver Broncos' defensive front last Thursday night.
Then he suffered an ankle injury when quarterback Geno Smith took a sack to end the Raiders' third offensive series. To show just how important he is, the run game, along with the entire offense, stalled out in line with his absence.
Raiders' free agency mistake will now be front and center for all to see
After the game, Carroll immediately indicated Powers-Johnson would be out for a while. On Monday, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported that the second-year guard will go on IR, and he could miss the rest of the season.
Fostering a culture of competition like Carroll does is just fine. But that idea extended to him making some odd or ill-advised decisions about the configuration of the interior offensive line from the start of training camp.
All three players who seemed to have settled in at their best spots on the interior last season were moved, and the results speak for themselves. Spurred by his history with general manager John Spytek and minority owner Tom Brady in Tampa Bay, the Raiders signed veteran guard Alex Cappa to a two-year, $11 million free agent deal in March.
The immediate problem with this signing was that Cappa was not a starting-caliber right guard last season for the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals also wasted little time in releasing him before free agency began, yet Las Vegas paid him arguably a starter's salary.
RELATED: Geno Smith said what every Raiders fan was thinking about Jakobi Meyers
Yet, Carroll kept Powers-Johnson in a competition with Cappa, a clearly inferior player, well into the season, and offered nothing but ludicrous reasoning for it when injuries were not in play. Cappa started Week 2 when Powers-Johnson was out with a concussion, and despite Powers-Johnson clearing protocol, Cappa started again in Week 3.
During the blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 7, Powers-Johnson was pulled from the game sooner than any other offensive starter, and other offensive linemen were not pulled at all. That led to Carroll being asked if an injury was in play, and he provided a lame answer.
"No, we took him out. We gave Alex a shot,” Carroll said.
Now, with Powers-Johnson out for several weeks, if not the rest of the season, Cappa will get his chance to be the Raiders' starting right guard, for better or worse, with nothing and no one to stand in the way. He can, however, make a looming offseason decision to cut him even easier, so there's that silver lining.