The Raiders have a new head coach and General Manager this season and part of their job will be fitting players drafted under the previous regime into their scheme.
One player on that list is offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood. He was one of many high draft picks from the Jon Gruden/Mike Mayock era that left people scratching their heads and his move from right tackle to right guard as a rookie did little to convince people that the Raiders hadn’t reached for him in the first round last year.
New G.M. Dave Ziegler and head coach Josh McDaniels said this week that they aren’t focused on Leatherwood’s position as much as making sure he takes steps forward after a rocky rookie year. Ziegler noted how much experience Leatherwood got by playing in 18 games and said the team is “going to let him create an opportunity for himself” in the coming months.
“What we’re going to focus on is fundamentals, technique,” McDaniels said, via Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “What can he do better as a football player? Forget about the position. Then we’ll worry about tackle to guard, guard to tackle as we get into more football-specific things.”
There will be plenty of players acquired in the last few years trying to impress the new brass this offseason. If Leatherwood can do that at either position, it would be a positive development for the offensive line in Vegas.
