The Las Vegas Raiders were close to unwatchable for major portions of the 2025 season, and the offensive line was a big reason. The unit struggled to protect quarterback Geno Smith, and Zoltan Buday of Pro Football Focus ranked the unit last in the league in his postseason ratings of every team’s O-line in the NFL.
So what were the problems? Start with the sack numbers, which are horrifying. No other team gave up more than 35 sacks last season, but the Raiders gave up 47, according to Buday. It’s hard to come up with a best lineup given that basic number, but here’s what Buday offered:
LT Kolton Miller
LG Dylan Parham
C Jordan Meredith
RG Jackson Powers-Johnson
RT DJ Glaze
A couple of other footnotes are worth mentioning here. Left tackle Stone Forsythe led the league with 13 sacks allowed after he replaced Miller, and right tackle DJ Glaze ranked second with 10 sacks surrendered.
Given those numbers, it’s not hard to identify the biggest problem here. Miller went out early in the season with a high ankle sprain that was later diagnosed as a fracture, and that was when the offensive line went to pieces.
Beyond that, Buday identified both Glaze and center Jordan Meredith as players who had the biggest issues. Glaze was a third-round pick out of Maryland in 2024, so those sack numbers are especially disappointing, and PFF also rated him below average in run blocking, which helps explain why running back Ashton Jeanty struggled to find holes and running lanes throughout the season.
Meredith was also a huge problem in pass protection. He was rated 38th out of the 40 centers covered in PFF’s rating system, and his running game grade was also below average.
There is a way out here, conceivably. As Buday noted, Miller might have been the best tackle in the league at pass protection before his injury, and he earned an extremely high grade of 89.5 in PFF’s pass protection grade. Getting Miller back healthy and fixing the coaching for the line could go a long way toward not having to draft a left tackle, which is especially important given that the Raiders are almost certain to draft quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the top pick in this year’s draft.
Powers-Jackson was the highest-rated center in the country coming out of college at Oregon, where he was awarded the Remington Trophy for that designation, so a position switch might be in his future. Guard Dylan Parham is considered adequate, and it might not take much to move this unit up in rank given how bad they were.