The Raiders offensive line was plagued with the injury bug in 2019, but despite all that, they managed to still perform as a Top 10 unit per NFL stats.
Moving up, or moving on? Vol. 5: Raiders O-Line
While they don’t dive into statistics for individual members, I used PFF to see how many snaps they played as well as their sacks allowed and penalties that hurt the team for evaluation, as well as Spotrac to judge whether I see them coming back or not.
Rodney Hudson, C
Moving up, Hudson allowed no sacks this past season and managed just three penalties in 904 offensive snaps. He is the offensive line captain, the anchor of this unit and deserves every dollar he gets. He is locked in through 2022 and his cap hits are high but his dead cap penalties are favorable should he start to regress.
Kolton Miller, LT
Moving up, Miller is a stud, I don’t care what anyone says. He has shown heart and toughness in his first two seasons and held the blindside spot down well. Miller slipped, just like everyone, and allowed seven sacks in 1,019 snaps with just four penalties. He is locked in through 2021 and I expect him to be around much longer than that.
Related: Year in Review for Clelin Ferrell
Richie Incognito, LG
Moving up, Incognito just signed a two-year deal with no dead cap penalties. In 766 snaps, he allowed one sack. While he does hurt the team with some stupid penalties at critical times, he still only had eight, which isn’t that bad in my eyes. He has performed well and was born to play for the Raiders. If he performs as well as he did in 2019, I expect him to finish out his contract, but if he slips, he can be dropped with no penalties.
Gabe Jackson, RG
Split decision, Jackson is due 9 million dollars this year with no dead cap. If he doesn’t restructure, he’s gone. Raiders may cut him anyways as he has not been the same since his injury and some would say he never deserved the contract to begin with. This year, he played 707 snaps, caused four penalties and allowed five sacks. Compared to Incognito, does he deserve 3-4 million more? Absolutely not.
Trent Brown, RT
Moving up, Brown was hurt a lot of the year, only playing in 582 snaps, but still only allowing one sack. He was penalized five times but was a force to be reckoned with throwing big guys around when he was healthy. He was a big factor to Jacobs getting so many yards as well. His contract is big, and locks him in 2020 no matter what due to his dead cap being 21 million (his contract), but he will most likely stick around longer as his contract drops 7 mil his last two seasons, with no dead cap just in case.
Denzelle Good, RG
Moving up, Good just got a one-year extension, all but signaling Jackson’s end. On 338 snaps, he only allowed one sack and had two penalties. He will either be a stop gap between Gabe and someone else or he will earn his role this year.
Brandon Parker, T
Split decision, Parker only played in 191 snaps, allowing three sacks and two penalties. He has shown flashes of doing well, then wipes it away with horrible coverages. He is low cost though and provides depth so he will stick around until someone beats him out of a spot. Its 50/50 whether he is on the team at the start of the season next year as his dead cap is only 250K.
Andre James, C
Moving up, James fared well when he covered for Hudson at times, he only played 116 snaps but didn’t allow sacks nor penalties. He is low cost and provides good depth and I expect him to stick around.
Lester Cotton Sr, G
Split decision, Cotton is a free agent that I doubt will be back but could be resigned for cheap as an extra camp body that tries to earn playing time.
David Sharpe, T
Split decision, Sharpe is locked in for 2020 and I expect him and Parker to battle for the tackle backup role. In his 267 snaps, he allowed three sacks and was penalized three times.
Whoever else for the Raiders?
I don’t expect any huge free agent signings but I can see them targeting a solid guard replacement. I also expect a tackle or two brought in to battle Parker and Sharpe for backup duties. Like previous years, we will see 4-5 more names across the line for camp and preseason fighting for spots.
Final Words
The starting line is pretty much established minus the Jackson scenarios. Good will most likely fill in there if they can’t get anyone else. It is hard to predict o-line depth as it seems to be a revolving door more times than not. Hopefully we don’t have to see the depth, not knowing the backups is a good thing. I hope we forget about some of them.
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