It’s Week 3 and the Las Vegas Raiders are set to take on the Washington Commanders. Be sure to check out the gameday FEED discussion on Sunday, focusing on Ashton Jeanty’s touches. But first, let’s get to this week’s mailbag!
Q: Do you personally think Geno Smith’s last game against the Los Angeles Chargers was just one bad outing, or are the Raiders still heavily quarterback-deficient in the best division in the league?
A: Monday night highlighted a few of Smith’s deficiencies: forcing passes into
coverage, predetermining throws and struggling to throw with anticipation. Obviously, that needs to get cleaned up and ironed out moving forward. However, I think it’s an overreaction to say that the Raiders are still quarterback-deficient.
I have confidence that Geno will learn from this and be better moving forward. He played well in Week 1, and I know emotions run high during the regular season, where people’s opinions can sway game-to-game. But let’s collectively take a deep breath and put the pitchforks down for a second. We’re not even in October yet, and Smith is working with new teammates, a lot of whom are still pretty young. He needs to be better, and he knows that, but he’s still capable of being a top 12 quarterback in the league.
A: According to Pro Football Focus, Jeanty has forced eight missed tackles on 30 carries as a rusher and two on three receptions. The former is tied for the fourth-most among running backs and the latter is tied for 12th. PFF also has an “elusive rating” metric, which is calculated with the following formula: (Missed Tackles Forced) / (Designed Run Attempts + Receptions) * (Yards After Contact Per Attempt * 100). Jeanty is currently at 80.0, 16th at the position (minimum 11 total touches).
Q: Do you think drafting a running back instead of an offensive tackle was putting the cart before the horse? Can an elite running back make up for a weak offensive line?
A: Leading up to the draft, the question marks on the offensive line were a big part of why I was hoping Las Vegas would go in a different direction with the sixth overall pick. So, I do agree with the “cart before the horse” sentiment. That being said, I’ll also acknowledge that Jeanty was the best running back in the draft class and Las Vegas definitely needed to improve at the position.
Elite running backs, which Jeanty could develop into, can help make an offensive line look better to a certain degree. However, they won’t be able to make up for a weak offensive line, which is the primary reason why the position has been devauled in recent years.
Saquon Barkley is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. He played behind a few bad offensive lines with the New York Giants and still managed to have three 1,000-yard seasons (and one 962-yard performance), but he took way too many hits that led to injuries and it was clear that he had some untapped potential. Then, Barkley signs with the Philadelphia Eagles, who have an elite offensive line, and makes a push for the rushing title with a 2,000-yard campaign and becomes the Offensive Player of the Year.
In other words, Jeanty has plenty of talent to be productive with the Raiders’ current offensive line, but the play in the trenches must improve for him to reach his full potential.
Q: What’s up with Dylan Parham? I had read that he came to camp bigger and stronger, but he’s still getting pushed around and run over. Does he have balance issues? Is it Pete’s son, like I asked about last week?
A: In my opinion, Parham is just an average starter. He’ll have his good games and fair share of bad ones, too. You can blame it on coaching if you want, but I just don’t think Parham is that good. I will cut him some slack, and this is where the coaching staff is to blame; he is historically better on the right side than the left. The fourth-year pro’s best season came last year, when he played right guard exclusively. He just seems to be more comfortable at that spot.
Q: If the offensive line continues to play this poorly, do you think they would at least let the guards switch positions and play where they did last year, seemingly so much better? Do you even think they would consider putting Jackson Powers-Johnson back at center, Jordan Meredith at LG and move Parham back to RG?
A: The coaching staff is going to have to change something if the interior offensive line continues to play like this because the group is struggling pretty badly right now. I don’t know how much patience the coaches have or when they’ll make a switch, but they can’t let this go on and do nothing for much longer.
If the current combo’s play doesn’t start moving in the right direction, then going back to last year’s lineup should certainly be on the table. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Will Putnam and/or Caleb Rogers start to factor into the mix. I’m not sure what or when changes will be made, but I do know that the offense has to get better play out of its guards and center moving forward.
Q: I know the coaches were high on Isaiah Pola-Mao, but, except for a couple of plays, he really hasn’t improved from last year – out of position, confused and missing tackles. Do you think they would consider swapping him for Chris Smith II, who had a good preseason and seems more like an instinctual player?
A: I thought Pola-Mao played well in the season opener, making a handful of impact plays in both phases of the game. However, he was one of the defense’s worst players against the Chargers. So, I don’t think the Raiders will be making a move soon, but Smith could certainly have his number called at some point this season. It wouldn’t surprise me if he gets some reps in the next few games since Patrick Graham has liked to use a lot of three-safety sets in the past, but has only played Pola-Mao and Jeremy Chinn so far this season.
A: For some reason, the new regime likes what Zamir White brings to the table. Personally, there’s a reason why I had him getting cut on my original 53-man roster projection. I ended up switching that as training camp went along because of the reports that you mention and what the coaching staff was saying about White. But to me, it was pretty clear that Sincere McCormick was the better back of the two. Obviously, that’s neither here nor there now, though.
I mentioned this last week, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Raiders are trying to keep Raheem Mostert fresh for the second half of the season. However, if White continues to average 1.2 yards per carry, then the timetable for Mostert to be active and get touches needs to be accelerated because something needs to change. The problem is that they are two different styles of backs, so it’s not a one-for-one swap where the same plays can be called for Mostert and White.
I also wouldn’t mind seeing Dylan Laube get a few more carries. He had a brutal rookie season but has done everything the coaching staff has asked him to do this year, so he should get rewarded if the guy in front of him isn’t performing. Granted, Laube also isn’t a power back like White. But, again, it’s not like the latter is producing and something has to change at this rate.
Before you go, check out these new Starter jackets from my friends at Homage and click here to see their collection of Raiders gear.
That’ll do it for this week’s mailbag. Thank you all for submitting questions and, as your weekly reminder, if you’d like to have your questions answered in a future column, tweet them at me, @MHolder95, email them to SBPQuestions1@gmail.com or look for our weekly call for questions on the site. The latter will continue to publish on Thursdays.
