The Las Vegas Raiders have had a major shake up this offseason so far. Owner Mark Davis with the help of minority owner Tom Brady has brought in two key people who will look to turn around the franchise in Las Vegas.
Pete Carroll and John Spytek are the new head coach and general manager duo that will do their best to give the Silver and Black stability.
The hiring of Spytek is flying under the radar around the whole league. Spytek will be in his first year as a general manager, but he has shown that he is ready to take the next step of picking the right players for the Raiders and getting them the best roster possible to compete in a tough AFC West.
One area of the Raiders team the new staff does not have to worry about is the offensive line. The offensive line came along great in the second half of the season.
The Raiders have young building blocks on the line with Jackson Powers-Johnson, DJ Glaze, Dylan Parham, and Jordan Meredith. We know that veteran left tackle Kolton Miller is the leader of the group, but the young core stepped up and played well last season.
Meredith got his opportunity to play last season after injuries to the line and never looked back. Meredith was one of the best guards last season.
PFF gave Meredith the fifth highest grade among guards for the 2024 season.
If you polled experts ahead of the season, likely few, if any, would have included Meredith. Not appearing in a game until Week 6, Meredith played by far the fewest snaps among players on this list but made the absolute most of them.
He didn’t allow any sacks and let his quarterback hit the ground only once to the tune of just nine pressures on 399 pass-blocking snaps. This was Meredith’s first season playing more than 100 snaps since being an undrafted free agent in 2021. If 2024 was any indication, he should see a significant increase in his role going forward.
Meredith will be in line to start for the Silver and Black next season. The Raiders have the offensive line to be successful next season and give whoever is the starting quarterback the best protection.
