RT battle heats up on Saturday
The Las Vegas Raiders’ right tackle situation will be one of the biggest training camp battles to keep an eye on for the next month or so. Heading into camp, Brandon Parker and Alex Leatherwood were expected to be the top contenders, however, rookie seventh-round pick Thayer Munford seems to be emerging to make it a three-horse race.
According to Vincent Bonsignore of The Las Vegas Review-Journal, Munford was taking reps with the Raiders’ first and second team offenses, reps that had been Leatherwood’s before yesterday.
Something to keep an eye on: There were times during second-half of @Raiders practice in which Thayer Munford was getting reps with 1st/2nd team that normally go to Alex Leatherwood. We will be talking to Alex later today.
— Vincent Bonsignore (@VinnyBonsignore) July 30, 2022
The Ohio State product is no slouch, he was Pro Football Focus’ fourth-highest graded tackle overall (91.8) in 2020 before making the switch to guard last season. So, he’s more than capable of holding his own, but this doesn’t bode well for Las Vegas’ first-round pick from a year ago.
What might make matters worse is, according to several media members in attendance, Leatherwood appeared to be pretty ‘dejected’ during his press conference after practice on Saturday. Every answer he gave to the reporters’ questions was very brief — maybe a sentence or two each — and here’s all he had to say about what he wants to improve upon:
“Nothing really specific, but just improve my game as a whole. Pass pro and the run game, you can never be perfect in the game, so always work on everything.”
In Leatherwood’s defense, The Athletic’s Tashan Reed tweeted the second-year pro didn’t seem all that different than normal, and he’s typically short and monotone with the media. So, it could be a matter of perspective and maybe he just had one bad practice.
That being said, our Marcus Johnson, who was also at camp, told me the 2021 first-round pick didn’t take reps with the first team yesterday which obviously, isn’t a good sign. It is early in camp and the Raiders haven’t even played their first preseason game yet, but time is a tickin’.
We’ll get our first look at Leatherwood and the rest of the crew on Thursday at 5:00 pm PST against the Jacksonville Jaguars for the Hall of Fame Game.
In other Raiders Links:
- People want Davante Adams merch: the Silver and Black’s new wideout ranks seventh in officially licensed products sold, per the NFLPA.
- Carr to Carr: NFL Network’s David Carr interviewed his brother Derek after practice yesterday.
- Carson Palmer thinks Raiders can win Super Bowl: the team’s former quarterback had some good things to say about their current one and is bullish on Vegas’ outlook, via Mad Dog Sports Radio.
- Javin White return?: the Oakland native and UNLV alum was released by the New York Jets after they signed Kwon Alexander
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