Raiders 2019 Positional Review: Offensive Line

Jeff Spiegel
Jeff Spiegel
4 Min Read
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

It’s never glamorous, it’s never sexy — and yet, there’s nothing more important to an NFL offense than the big uglies up front. The good news for Las Vegas Raiders fans is that the front office has known this for a few years, and so they’ve put together one of the better groups in the league.

After reviewing the state of the quarterback position and the skill position guys earlier this week, we now move to the offensive line before attacking the defense next week.

Under Contract: Trent Brown, Kolton Miller, Brandon Parker, Erik Magnunson, David Sharpe, Kyle Kalis, Gabe Jackson, Richie Incognito, Denzelle Good, Lester Cotton, Rodney Hudson, Andre James

Free Agents: Jordan Devey, Cameron Hunt (ERFA)

As I mentioned above, this is a group that has benefited from solid drafting and a keen eye for roster depth. While offensive line coach Tom Cable has been heavily criticized, 2019 was a good year for him — especially when you consider that he found a guy like James while developing a former first-round pick in Miller into a solid left tackle.

As with a number of other positions, this is a group that will see most of the competition taking place in the second-string ranks and beyond.

Tackles

A year ago the Raiders made Brown the highest paid tackle in the league, and a year later it made them look pretty damn smart. Many said the move was foolish when the Raiders announced that Brown would be remaining as a right tackle, but as Super Bowl champion Mitchell Schwartz pointed out, there’s no real difference between the two positions in today’s NFL.

On the other side is Miller, the often-criticized rookie who bounced back to have a sophomore campaign that left many of his doubters silent. Miller isn’t an elite left tackle — at least not yet — but even if he becomes an above-average guy, that’ll be a win in a league that is desperate for solid tackle play.

Guards

The Raiders started the offseason by re-signing the mercurial Incognito after he put together an outstanding year at 36-years-old. At one point, Troy Aikman said Incognito was the best guard in the league today and the best he has seen since Larry Allen. Because of that, he was rewarded with a two-year, $12.7 million deal.

At the other guard spot is Jackson, who’s probably the only guy on this list trending the wrong way. Jackson had such a great start to his career that many believed he would be a perennial Pro Bowler — but since then injuries and inconsistency have plagued him. He remains a good right guard, but it’ll be interesting to see if he can get a solid run of health that allows him to return to an elite level.

Center

Rodney Hudson is the best center in the league. Period, full stop.

Overall

Again, this is a really, really strong group with no obvious flaws. Even in their depth, I think Good as about the best you could ask for in a backup guard while James showed flashes of versatility that could make him incredibly valuable moving forward. Of course there are questions at the backup tackle positions, but I’d bet that every team in the league has the same problem there.

Information

Jeff Spiegel was raised in California but currently resides in Portland, Oregon. After graduating from the University of Oregon, he worked in sports before entering journalism full time — first as a Sports Reporter and then as the Associate Editor of a small newspaper. Online, he has been writing about both the Raiders and Dodgers since 2012 — having written for DodgersNation.com and SBNation.com prior to joining both DodgerBlue.com and RaidersNewswire.com. He left full-time journalism in 2012 to become a pastor. Jeff can be found on Twitter at @JeffSpiegel. Favorite Raider This one is an easy one for me: Charles Woodson. When the Raiders drafted him, there was nothing to dislike about the guy — he was exciting and he was freaking good. Unfortunately, of course, he left after eight seasons — but when he returned in 2013 it was one of the better Raider moments of my lifetime. At that point, I didn't care how washed he was (and he wasn't!) — I just liked having him back in the silver and black. Obviously Tim Brown is another guy that was easy to love, but Woodson is the all-timer for me. As far as current, I'm still a believer in Derek Carr and think he's going to figure this all out. Favorite Raider Moment I think I'll go with the two weeks leading up to the 2001 Super Bowl. As a kid, I remember getting the newspaper every morning to read what they were talking about, clipping out the articles to keep for later. It was obviously far more exciting than the Super Bowl itself, but I'll never forget those moments of hope leading up to the Super Bowl. I referenced it above, but second to that was probably the return of Charles Woodson in 2013 — I just loved the guy, and never dreamed he'd actually come back.