Raiders have no choice but to admit defeat on offensive line

The Las Vegas Raiders were completely battered and bruised by the Washington Commanders in Sunday’s troubling 41-24 loss.

Geno Smith took five sacks during the afternoon, and the Raiders now sit tied for second with the New England Patriots and Minnesota Vikings for the most sacks given up with 12 (only the Tennessee Titans have given up more sacks with 15). Even worse is that, for the third straight game, Ashton Jeanty has been unable to find any room to break off big gains. Jeanty has been hit at or behind the line of scrimmage on 57 percent of his carries, leading to only marginal improvement of what was last season’s worst rushing game.

At some point, the Raiders will have to acknowledge what the rest of the football world has seen over the past few weeks.

The Raiders made a mistake with how they set up their offensive line this season.

In hindsight, the trouble began back in training camp and the preseason, when Raiders head coach Pete Carroll experimented with swapping Jordan Meredith and Jackson Powers-Johnson from their natural positions.

Last year, the offensive line performed well when Meredith entered the lineup at guard while Powers-Johnson proved why he was the top center in college football a couple of seasons ago. However, the Raiders decided to try and fix something that was not broken to begin with. It has resulted in both players taking a step back this season, which has been frustrating on all sides.

The Raiders have already tried to see what free agent signing Alex Cappa can do starting at guard in place of Powers-Johnson, but the results showed that that is not a viable option.