Not even two years ago Jackson Powers-Johnson was hoisting the Rimington Trophy as the nation's top center. That accomplishment made the Oregon Ducks lineman the 44th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft and the first center selected. But these days he has been lining up at right guard while former undrafted free agent Jordan Meredith starts at center.
The move was a surprise considering JPJ seemed to have worked his way up to becoming the team's starting center midway through his rookie season and as recent as the start of camp in late July, that seemed to still be the case. But a few days into camp, that changed, with Meredith taking over at center and JPJ shifting to right guard, replacing offseason free agent acquisition Alex Cappa .
JPJ started the season opener, but a concussion had Cappa take over as the starter the past two weeks. This was supposed to be a situation where the competition was so close between the two that it would be seamless. And, honestly, it's hard to say whether that's true considering the line as currently assembled has not performed well overall.
Their poor performance has a lot of people now openly wondering why the team thinks putting JPJ at right guard and Meredith at center instead of the other way around. To which Raiders OC Chip Kelly set about explaining.
"Because Jordan [Meredith] did a better job in preseason camp at playing center for us in terms of what we want, call wise, putting us in the right protections, doing all those things," said Kelly. "I think Jordan is what you're looking for in a center in this league. He reminds me a little bit, I'm not going to say he is, but he reminds me a lot of Jason Kelce that I had when I was in Philly. He's got a long way to go. Jason's a Hall of Famer, but he's that type of player. We were really excited about what Jordan's doing at center."
As for JPJ at guard...
"He's a bigger body, and I think that's one reason why he's a better guard," Kelly added." of He's built more like a guard than he is like a center. Jordan's [Meredith] built a little bit more like a [Jason] Kelce, an athletic guy, pull, get out in space, all those other things. Jackson [Powers-Johnson] is a tough, hard nose. There's a lot of big 3-techniques in this league, so to have a, 'How do you handle a guy at the 3-technique or having a bigger body at the guard spot' is what he is, and his toughness is always a positive to what we're doing."
Should the line being playing at the level that Kelly and the Raiders thought it would with the current alignment, these questions will go away. Thus far it's been quite bad. Leading to a ridiculous stat for Ashton Jeanty in which he actually has more yards after contact than positive yards -- something that should never happen.
Pete Carroll has, more than once, preached patience as this group gets more time on task to, hopefully, jell and start opening up holes and pass protecting more consistently. But things simply can't go on like this for much longer without a change of some kind. Or each week, it will be the same question 'You still feel like this is the best group?'
They will have no excuse this Sunday. The Bears allow 5.5 yards per carry on the ground, which is second worst in the league.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders OC defends playing former center Jackson Powers-Johnson at RG
