The Raiders lost right guard Jackson Powers-Johnson to injury vs the Broncos during Thursday nights 10-7 loss.
He is reportedly going on injured reserve and could miss the rest of the season an ankle injury, which could indicate there’s a chance the 2nd year lineman from Oregon doesn’t return this season with their only being 8 games remaining in the season. Las Vegas will likely see Alex Cappa, who signed a 2 year contract worth 11.5 million in the off-season step into the role for Powers-Johnson
as he’s done at times this season. This season the 30 year old Cappa has logged 189 snaps and allowed 2 sacks and 14 pressures along with being flagged twice. In Cappa’s two starts this season in place for the injured Powers-Johnson he allowed 11 pressures, 3 hits, and a sack through a little under 90 pass block attempts while also allowing just 2.1 ypc as a lead blocker.
In addition to Powers-Johnson injury, left guard Dylan Parham suffered what Pete Carroll described as a high ankle sprain. Carroll, stated that Parham attempted to go back into the game after suffering the injury but couldn’t push off from his ankle and thus was held out. High ankle sprains usually have a 3-4 or more week recovery timeline, including the one suffered by Raiders left tackle Kolton Miller back in week four which has still held him out after Miller was allowing just 4 pressures through 152 pass block attempts. Parham has had his ups and downs this season as he looks for a contract this off-season where he’s allowed 3 sacks and 18 pressures along with 3 penalties. Parham has seen his fair share of ups and downs in his career struggling at times but he’s remained a consistent run blocker including a 4.1 ypc lead blocking this season. In replacement of Parham came 2024 UDFA Will Putnam, who outside of 3 snaps this season in clean up duty has never taken a snap at LG since his sophomore year of college. Likewise, Putnam did struggle allowing a sack and 4 pressures with just 1.7 ypc as a lead blocker while also posting a 0.0 PFF pass blocking grade (if you value that). Putnam was notably beat off the line quickly in a snap resulting in a 3rd down sack for Geno Smith, one of six the Broncos logged. Putnam could earn the opportunity to start in place of Parham going forward, however third round rookie Caleb Rogers is the ideal pick to replace him.
Rogers was drafted 98th overall in April and the 24 year old hasn’t taken a snap this season for the Raiders as he’s been buried on the depth chart. After an alright preseason which saw him allow a hit and 3 pressures on 76 pass block attempts (all at LG) he’s been inactive for the entire regular season. Seemingly, the Raiders drafted Rogers to be a potential replacement at guard for Dylan Parham after this season, given the injury sustained to Parham it would make sense for the Raiders to see what they have in their third round rookie instead of playing Putnam out of position again. The Raiders sit at 2-7, the goal for the remainder of the season goes beyond striving to win each week and boils down to seeing what the youth on the roster can do going forward. While unlikely, there’s the possibility the Raiders shift Jordan Meredith to LG and let Putnam man center.
