The Las Vegas Raiders have been struggling this season, and last season, so far with their offensive line. However, you already knew that, so that isn't what I'm here to tell you.

You probably already knew that a lot of the struggles are also coming from 2021 first-round pick Alex Leatherwood. However, a ton of people, myself included (until about 15 minutes ago) may not know why he is struggling.

Lucky for us, Ted Nguyen, an NFL film savant of The Athletic, broke it down a bit to help some of us better understand why Leatherwood just can't seem to get it right.

Raiders' Leatherwood struggles with technique

As soon as I opened up Nguyens' article and read the first line "Great technique can help a lesser athlete succeed, while poor technique can cause more physically gifted athletes to fail", I knew exactly where he was going with this.

Nguyen looked at the tape on Leatherwoods' technique with former All-Pro right tackle Mitchell Schwartz. The main takeaway from the article was a quote I found very interesting from Schwartz.

“(Leatherwood’s) biggest mechanical problem is he punches too low,” Schwartz told Nguyen. “When the defender does anything to his right arm, he’s got no leverage and no pressure going upwards. It makes him top heavy, and he’s susceptible to falling on his face.”

As the two noted in the article, we saw just that against the Dolphins, Leatherwood falling on his face because he was beaten on the outside by being too patient.

According to Nguyen and Schwartz, Leatherwood also has a tendency to keep his hands low when he is getting ready to block. That part is fine. It's what he does after that, that is messing up Leatherwoods' technique.

If you keep your hands low, you need to be able to punch high and have more power on the punch. Leatherwood punches low, and has no power on the punches, making it easy for the defenders to get by him.

The best thing I thought Nguyen said was his closing line.

"The best thing for Leatherwood might be to take a back seat and continue to refine his technique, so he’s not reinforcing bad habits in live action. Otherwise, there could be a snowball effect that impacts everything he’s doing."

If Leatherwood were to take a back seat, it would most definitely be a good thing for him. However, there isn't quite anyone behind him who is good enough, either. Not to mention the two guys behind him on the depth chart, Brandon Parker, and Thayer Munford, are both currently hurt.

I think the Raiders need to do this, which means they need to make a move in free agency. There are some guys out there who could help their problem.

Daryl Williams, Eric Fisher, and Jason Peters are some guys that the Raiders could go after. No, they don't play the exact position Leatherwood does, but a lot of the guys on the team as well as these free agents are versatile.

I want to say this needs to be solved before the regular season starts, but they are running out of time.

You can read the rest of Nguyens' article here.

Featured Image Via Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports