Klint Kubiak was very blunt and straightforward when answering a question regarding Jackson Powers-Johnson
The Las Vegas Raiders are in a good situation with their offensive line compared to where it was last year, but Jackson Powers-Johnson has got to show up.
The Las Vegas Raiders have clear position battles all over the roster. Despite playing a preseason game, some positions are still undecided. One of them is the right guard position, where, even though Jackson Powers-Johnson has been holding down most of the first-team reps, Caleb Rogers is on his tail.
JPJ started their first preseason game on Thursday against the Arizona Cardinals. Most assumed that meant that JPJ was winning the battle outright. That’s just not the case. On Sunday, head coach Klint Kubiak was upfront and blunt about the battle between two guys with a ton of potential, but only one spot to grab.
“No,” Kubiak said bluntly when asked if JPJ had the position locked up. He also mentioned that it’s wide open between JPJ and Rogers. After practice on Sunday, that became more evident. JPJ ran the beginning of the day with the ones, while Rogers started rotating in with the ones near the end. Maybe, just maybe, this is all a good thing, though.
Raiders may have a good problem to have
There’s a lot of depth on this team, much better depth than the Raiders had this time last year. For the offensive line positions, they definitely have more depth. Everywhere on the interior of the offensive line has been upgraded, depth-wise and even starter-wise when you talk about Tyler Linderbaum.
The Raiders have competent options at both guard spots. They have a position battle at right guard, and that’s not a bad problem to have. Right now, it doesn’t feel like a bad problem to have. During the season, both options could end up being bad, and we could be sitting here talking about right guard as a weak link. Then again, if those two don’t work, there’s always rookie Trey Zuhn.
This is not a luxury the Raiders had last season. So, even being in this situation and talking about it is a very good thing.
