The Las Vegas Raiders surprised a lot of folks in Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season when they went on the road and beat the New England Patriots in an early kickoff game. The 20-13 victory was a tremendous start to the Pete Carroll era, but there is clearly more work to be done.
On the offensive line, in particular, the Raiders need to dramatically improve if they want to pull off upsets against the Los Angeles Chargers and Washington Commanders in Weeks 2 and 3. The unit held back the offense, and scoring 20 points won't do the trick against some of the NFL's best.
Despite all of the great work that Carroll did this offseason to help Las Vegas be ready for the year, his decision to mix around the interior offensive line was a bit puzzling. Fans settled into the idea of the reshuffling, but the issues reared their ugly head once again on Sunday.
Raiders' interior OL struggled after Pete Carroll's offseason jumble
Against New England, the offensive line did not mesh as a unit. They miscommunicated on a series of blitzes and stunts, which resulted in Geno Smith being sacked four times for a loss of 29 yards. The offense also averaged just 2.3 yards per carry and had just one run of 10 or more yards.
Outside of star left tackle Kolton Miller, the individual pieces on the line struggled as well. Center Jordan Meredith was firmly average with a Pro Football Focus grade of 63.1, but the other three starters struggled tremendously.
Of the 16 players that subbed in for the Las Vegas offense on Sunday, Dylan Parham's PFF grade ranked 13th on the team, DJ Glaze's was 15th and Jackson Powers-Johnson came in at 16th, which was dead-last. These three also combined for five penalties.
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Last season, Parham played exclusively right guard, recording a PFF grade of 74.3. Through one game at left guard, he stands at just 50.5. By contrast, Jackson Powers-Johnson earned a 44.1 mark at right guard, when he earned a 63.9 at center and left guard last year.
Meredith also saw a significant dip in his PFF grade, as he recorded a 63.1 on Sunday in his first-ever NFL start at center. Last season at both guard spots, however, he was among the league's best with an 80.8 mark.
These troubling numbers prove that Carroll's risky venture to reshuffle these three players was a mistake, especially because the three all played well last season. Of course, there is still time for things to flip, as one game is a small sample size, and Carroll said as much on Monday.
"The guys haven't played very much together, you know, we haven't in real games," Carroll said. "The (preseason) games helped us some, the practice against the Niners helped us some, but these games will help us get better."
Regardless of how you slice it, however, this was a brutal start to the year for Carroll's project. Hopefully, things change soon.