In a way, it is no surprise that the Las Vegas Raiders' 2025 NFL season has gone the way that it has. When the new coaching staff took over, they immediately started making some questionable personnel decisions, the most prominent of which came on the interior offensive line.
Jordan Meredith, who played quite well at guard last season, became the focal point of Pete Carroll's reshuffling. To him, and perhaps then-offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, Meredith was a true center, which meant Jackson Powers-Johnson moved to right guard and Dylan Parham flipped to left guard.
Obviously, these changes have not panned out. However, Meredith was the least of the group's concerns, as DJ Glaze and Powers-Johnson both took steps back this season and backup tackle Stone Forsythe has been a disaster in Kolton Miller's place. But then, something weird happened.
Raiders place Jordan Meredith on IR, make corresponding moves
In Week 12, for the first time all season, Meredith didn't play every snap. He missed two plays for an unknown reason, which turned out to be an apparent ankle injury, and he missed Week 13's matchup. This was despite being limited in practice the week prior and officially listed as questionable.
Ahead of the next game, Meredith was limited early in the week before practicing in full for the first time since his injury. He was officially listed as questionable, and was indeed active in Week 14, but he didn't start at center. In fact, he didn't play on offense at all, recording just three special teams snaps.
The following week, Meredith was a full participant for all three practices, but was listed as questionable for Week 15 and ultimately ruled out. To further complicate things, Meredith was full every practice again last week, but was relegated to a special teams role on Sunday once again.
Although Meredith has been the least of the Raiders' concerns on the offensive line, it sure seemed like Las Vegas was benching him. That would be quite the development, as they essentially rearranged things for him, and there were several more viable benching candidates.
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Carroll explained Meredith's absence away by saying that he wasn't healthy enough to go. But this begs the question of how Meredith could practice in full, be healthy enough to suit up and play some special teams reps, but he couldn't withstand the rigors of playing center.
Raider Nation got the missing piece of this seemingly unsolvable puzzle on Monday. Las Vegas announced that they were placing Meredith on the Injured Reserve list, and promoting practice squad guard Atonio Mafi in his place. Edge rusher Jahfari Harvey will take Mafi's spot on the practice squad.
This means that Meredith's rocky, and ultimately confusing, season is now done. Fans may never get clarity of this bizarre back-and-forth with his injury status, but it seems like the two sides simply couldn't decide whether or not he was healthy enough to play, and ultimately decided on the latter.
Hopefully, this wasn't another weird mind game from Carroll, and there aren't any nefarious circumstances here. Meredith will be a restricted free agent this offseason, but it is now impossible to predict whether he'll return to Las Vegas, or if he's played his final game in the Silver and Black.