In hindsight, it should have been easy to see coming. Despite the natural credibility he brought with him, Pete Carroll was not aligned with where the Las Vegas Raiders were as a franchise. A 70-plus-year-old coach wants to win now, and the roster was not in place to do so.
As expected, Carroll refused to play young players as a 3-14 season that featured one win between Week 1 and Week 18 went along. When it came down to it, he surely knew he'd be one-and-done, so what was the point in getting a look at young players? He stuck to his guns, much to fans' dismay.
Just one member of the Raiders' 2025 rookie class played more than 400 snaps on their side of the ball last season (Ashton Jeanty, of course). Another (Dont'e Thornton Jr.) almost reached that threshold (399 offensive snaps), while another (Jack Bech) got fairly close with 343 offensive snaps.
Otherwise, with some focus on the trenches, Carroll and his staff were allergic to giving any rookies noticeable run. Third-round offensive linemen Caleb Rogers and Charles Grant combined to start seven games, by necessity more than anything, and combined for fewer than 350 offensive snaps.
2025 draft pick made a real impression behind the scenes last season
In large part, and it's not a bad thing in the big picture, head coach Klint Kubiak and his staff will have what practically amounts to another rookie class to evaluate moving toward next season, simply based on how little last year's rookies played.
On a recent episode of the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast, Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers highlighted a 2025 rookie who still made an impression in the building last season, despite being up against it: Charles Grant.
"I’ve heard from multiple people that a lot of people inside the building, even though we only got to see him for a handful of snaps, like a quarter and a half at the most for the season, the people that see him in the building every day, the people see him in practice every day, the people see him in the weight room and the film room and just around the facility every day, they’re really high on him,” Myers said of Grant.
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"I don’t know, [being] fully transparent, what he’s going to bring to the table, what role he plays, but apparently there’s a lot of excitement and juice behind him," Myers said. "Obviously, we haven’t seen him on the field, so we couldn’t just give a real assessment. But that’s a name to watch out for and pay attention to for sure.”
A year ago, right now, Grant was an interesting and well-regarded left tackle prospect coming out of a small school, William & Mary. His one start as a rookie, and 41 of his 59 snaps, came at left tackle in Week 18, and he earned a 74.9 pass blocking grade from Pro Football Focus in that game.
With left tackle Kolton Miller coming back healthy for next season, and probably not going anywhere anytime soon with three years left on his contract, Grant's place on the Raiders' offensive line is unclear.
But if he continues to make a positive impression with a new coaching staff in place, there will be room for him somewhere.