Can Joe Philbin unlock potential in Raiders’ offensive line? ‘We’re not reinventing the wheel’
One can list many things that must happen for the Las Vegas Raiders to snap a six-game losing streak Sunday against the Denver Broncos, or even just win a game or two the rest of the season.
But there is no question what is at the top of the list. The offensive line has to play better, and the 2-8 Raiders have enlisted the help of former Miami Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin, 63, to help shepherd that. Philbin started coaching offensive linemen 38 years ago at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and cracked the NFL 17 years later.
“I still love teaching,” Philbin said Tuesday.
“I still love going to practice and then watching the players perform at a high level on Sundays. And I love the guys I am working with.”
Philbin, who came on board this year as a senior offensive assistant, took over as offensive line coach two weeks ago when James Cregg was fired — along with offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and quarterbacks coach Rich Scangerello — because the Raiders were dead last in the league in rushing. (They are also 27th with 33 sacks allowed, though some of those are on quarterback Gardner Minshew II.)
Philbin said he made “minimal tweaks” at practice last week.
The Raiders set a season high with 22 first downs and the timing was better in the passing game in the 34-19 loss in Miami, but they had only 60 yards rushing.
“We’re not reinventing the wheel,” rookie center Jackson Powers-Johnson said.
“The fundamentals of the game haven’t changed, and the offensive lineman’s job is to create space for the running back,” Philbin said. “How do you that? You have to hit your aiming point, you have to play with leverage and then you have to sustain blocks.
“In pass protection, I use the analogy of man-to-man defense in basketball.
The quarterback is the hoop, and the further away you keep your guy from the hoop, their shooting percentage is less and less. This game is simple, but not easy.”
The Miami game was the first start for the group of left tackle Kolton Miller, left guard Jordan Meredith, center Powers-Johnson, right guard Dylan Parham and right tackle DJ Glaze, and the hope is they start a streak together.
“You just hate that we keep changing all these pieces because at some point, you’d like just to have five guys there, continuity, chemistry,” coach Antonio Pierce said. “That’s really the glue to our team, when you can have that … you won’t have these mistakes and mental errors that we had early in the season.”
Miller and Parham are the only two still standing from the season-opening lineup, as Powers-Jackson, the team’s second-round pick, made his first start at right guard in Week 4 (for Cody Whitehair) before replacing the injured Andre James at center two games ago.
Meredith filled in for an injured Parham for three games before taking over at right guard last week. Glaze stepped in for an injured Thayer Munford Jr. in Week 4 before beating him out.
“We’ve got a great group of guys to work with,” Philbin said. “Great pros that have given great effort. Things don’t happen overnight, but we’re taking incremental steps. We have a long way to go, and I have to do a better job of giving us a better design in the running game.
Pierce and new interim offensive coordinator Scott Turner
Pierce and new interim offensive coordinator Scott Turner talked about how the communication has to improve up front, and Philbin thinks it has in Powers-Jackson’s two starts making the calls at center.
“He is a very poised, bright guy and he has a good demeanor on game day,” Philbin said. “Not uptight. He has an exuberance for the game, which is good. … When in doubt, you can overcommunicate to make sure that the five offensive linemen, tight end and running back are all on the same page pre-snap.”
Though there is an urgency to win a game, there is no rushing the process of this group getting better during the practice week.
“Joe has been great for us, fundamental-wise,” Parham said.
“And we’re taking our time, nothing is being rushed. We may spend more time on our footwork than the scheme some days. And we need to be a little more intentional with our communication
Whether it’s in the film room or on the field.
“We’re saying assignments out loud in the meeting rooms now, so everyone knows what the other guy is doing.”
Parham was a third-round pick, as was Glaze this year, and Miller was a first-rounder and Powers-Johnson a second-rounder. There’s some pedigree there.
Miller established himself as one of the better left tackles in the league but had a rough start this year after missing all of training camp recovering from offseason shoulder surgery.
“He has rare knee-bend for a man of his size,” Philbin said. “And his movement skill is excellent. He missed a lot of practice, so these next seven games, all those reps he has not gotten will pay dividends.
He is what you’re looking for in a left tackle in this league.”
Unlike his cohorts, Meredith was undrafted (out of Western Kentucky in 2021) and has scratched and clawed his way up the depth chart. He was waived after an initial training camp with the Los Angeles Rams, was signed and waived three times by the Raiders, then spent two weeks on the Cleveland Browns practice squad in November 2022 before returning to the Raiders.
“Jordan Meredith … we haven’t talked enough about him, but Jordan’s done a hell of a job filling in, and the way he’s been playing, he’s earned the right to be a starter going forward,” Pierce said.
Meredith said Philbin’s approach is the key to the coach’s history of success and why there is hope for this group.
“Slow is smooth and smooth is fast,” Meredith said. “That’s kind of the way he teaches. The speed picks up as the week goes on, and by game time, you are in peak shape.”
The Raiders hope they are in better shape than they were a week ago and then will just go from there.
“It’s easy for me, with the remote, to hit rewind 20 times and draw a yellow line or circle on the video screen with my finger,” Philbin said. “But they don’t have that luxury. … With the play speed, the different looks and the different blitzes, there’s a lot going on and it happens very fast.
