Andre

James

James has provided mostly league-average play at the pivot over the past four seasons, though 2024 was by far his worst year as he struggled through an ankle injury. We don’t have terms of the contract, but it’s plausible that James is a real challenger to playing time for Zion Johnson or Bradley Bozeman. Entering his age-28 season, James has never finished with a PFF pass block grade below 64.5 in four seasons as a starter.

James signed a three-year, $24 million contract last offseason but missed time with an ankle injury in 2024 and wasn’t particularly effective when healthy. The move will save Vegas $1.5 million in cap space. With James off the roster, second-year lineman Jackson Powers-Johnson will likely take his place in the lineup. JPJ took over at left guard early in his rookie season, filled in for a hurt James, and eventually moved back to left guard.

The Raiders will need to shuffle their line around a bit to backfill James’s role. Rookie Jackson Powers-Johnson has been starting at left guard but will presumably move to center. Cody Whitehair will then take over at left guard.

The Raiders’ offensive line is one of the team’s core strengths so losing the starting center could be a big deal. The team has also been without G Dylan Parham (foot), who returned to practice in a limited capacity on Wednesday. The offensive line could be compromised if both players are absent on Sunday.

James, who will get $16 million in guaranteed money, has spent his entire five-year career with the Raiders, starting each of the last 48 games he’s appeared in. The former UDFA made the team in 2019 and worked his way into the starting lineup in 2021. In 16 games last season, James appeared on 963 offensive snaps and earned a PFF blocking grade of 74.6 — a career-high.

The deal includes $6 million guaranteed. James, 24 in May, was scheduled to become a restricted free agent following the 2021 season but will instead stay locked up in Las Vegas through 2023. He’s only made one career start in place of Rodney Hudson, who has since been dealt to Arizona, but remains viewed as a quality NFL starter and personal pet project of line coach Tom Cable. This unit is still expected to regress this upcoming year given the lack of continuity from past seasons.

Rodney Hudson’s expected to miss “some time” with a high-ankle sprain, but this is the first time coach Jon Gruden’s mentioned backup C James being dealt a high-ankle sprain in Sunday’s loss, too. If OL Erik Magnuson (signed Tuesday) isn’t ready to step in, Richie Incognito would slide to center in place of Hudson. It’s a situation to monitor since both interior linemen Mike Daniels (foot) and Damon Harrison (groin) returned to practice for the Lions on Wednesday.

James (6'5/305) started all 12 games at left tackle for the Bruins in 2018, and he has ample experience at right tackle as well. The redshirt junior lineman started the final seven games of 2016 and all 13 games of the 2017 season at right tackle. Which spot on the line James will play at the NFL level remains to be seen, but having the experience of playing at both right and left tackle is a positive.