The Las Vegas Raiders offensive line has been getting pummeled by the defensive line at training camp so far, and that’s before the pads came on. Since the day training camp kicked off, the offense has been poor and the defense has set the tone. And, that’s really what we expected to happen considering everything we know about the team.
The defense kept almost everyone together and then added a dominant player in Christian Wilkins, along with some rookies, while the offense lost several key players, two of them starters on the offensive line, and is without a starter in Kolten Miller. So, things would be bumpy to start, and we knew that.
However, the defense is making them look like the 2022 Denver Broncos with Russell Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett.
A lot of these problems stem from the offensive line, which, like I said is without three starters from last year and has Dylan Parham at right guard as opposed to left guard like last season. With day one of pads being on Tuesday, one Raiders legend, or fan favorite I should say, shared a word with the offensive line.
“Richie Incognito talked to the team last night,” Antonio Pierce said before Tuesday’s practice. “Whatever you think he said, he probably said.”
Whatever Incognito, who is known for being a nasty player in the way he played and talked on the field, said, it must have worked, because the offense was much better. The offensive line being better on the first day of pads allows the quarterbacks to be much better, too, and both had good days.
Leading up to this, there weren’t many bright spots with the offense other than the usual Davante Adams, Jakobi Meyers, and even Brock Bowers. The one thing I will say is that it’s sad that Pierce had to have someone come in and give the team a pep talk, and that that worked. But, whatever works, I guess.
