When the Raiders announced that Alex Leatherwood would be their Day 1 starter at right tackle in minicamp, everyone knew he might start off slow. Not only is playing as a rookie difficult, but he is also making the transition from college left tackle to right tackle.
It also doesn’t help that in the first month of his career, he’s faced the likes of Justin Houston, T.J. Watt and Joey Bosa. Any right tackle would struggle against those All-Pro EDGE defenders.
Leatherwood did not play well in Week 4, allowing multiple pressures and sacks to Bosa. He also had two false start penalties, which can’t happen. That is why it isn’t a big surprise that Leatherwood is Pro Football Focus’s lowest-graded rookie offensive tackle in the NFL.
Here is what the site had to say about his performance on Monday Night Football:
“Leatherwood was always likely to struggle on Monday Night Football against the Chargers, and any time he was left on an island to block Joey Bosa, it was a recipe for disaster. Bosa is just too good for Leatherwood at this point in their respective careers, and the rookie surrendered five total pressures to earn a sub-50.0 PFF pass-blocking grade, which was actually the stronger facet of his game.”
The hope has always been that Leatherwood could follow the Kolton Miller career path arc. Take your lumps as a rookie, but get better each season with more experience. To Leatherwood’s credit, he has improved some each week. But he still needs to be better.
Unfortunately, his competition doesn’t get any easier this week as Khalil Mack comes to town to face his former team. The Raiders would be wise to help Leatherwood as much as possible in this game as Mack could take over the game single-handily if they leave him one-on-one with the rookie.
It’s been a tough start for Leatherwood in the NFL and it’s only going to get harder this week.