The biggest surprise of Las Vegas Raiders training camp thus far has been the team’s approach along the offensive line, and more specifically, at center.
All offseason long, Jackson Powers-Johnson was projected to be the starter at center, which made sense considering that’s where the second-round pick played in college, and he spent time there during his rookie campaign and proved to be effective.
However, the Raiders threw a massive curveball, with the team giving last year’s starting guard, Jordan Meredith, reps with the first-team offense at center.
Meanwhile, JPJ has rotated with Meredith at times, but he has also gotten looks at right guard, where veteran Alex Cappa has also seen plenty of time.
Just in case you were wondering, this isn’t something the Raiders just cooked up recently. Meredith revealed after practice on Sunday that the coaching staff had approached him during the offseason about playing center and he began his preparation for the switch at OTAs.
“They came up and said ‘Get ready to play center.’ And I was like, ‘OK, let’s do it,’” Meredith told ESPN’s Ryan McFadden.
The decision is odd for multiple reasons.
Powers-Johnson is a natural center and played well at the position last season. As for Meredith, he has zero NFL snaps at center and was quite effective as a guard when given opportunities in 2024.
This is definitely a weird situation and makes you wonder if there’s more going on with JPJ than we know about. Either the Raiders lack confidence in him for some reason, or they’re just challenging the second-year pro instead of handing him the job everyone expected him to have. Only time will tell.
All that said, if the offensive line proves to be vastly improved from 2024 and there are no weak links, nobody is going to care what the order is.
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