When the Raiders take the field Sunday in Cincinnati, they will have a new starting center. Regular center Andre James has been ruled OUT with an ankle injury, which means Jackson Powers-Johnson will be moving over from left guard to center.
“We’ve had Jackson there the last couple days we’ll leave him there and let guys kind of stay put,” Pierce said of the center position. “We’ve been shuffling the Oline quite a bit now due to injuries, so we do the best we can to keep some continuity there and let the guys that’s practiced throughout the week play where they’ve been practicing.”
Powers-Johnson was selected by the Raiders with the 44th overall pick in the second round of this year’s draft out of Oregon.
This past season for the Ducks, JPJ won the Rimington Award as the nation’s top center. But the Raiders needed him to play guard initially, being that they had James in place at center.
Currently the Raiders have several linemen with center experience, including the two linemen who could be starting at each guard spot on Sunday — Cody Whitehair and Dylan Parham. However, Whitehair’s days at center are long past, and the bulk of Parham’s experience is at guard.
JPJ stepped in at center for the final 16 snaps in last Sunday’s game against the Chiefs when James sustained the ankle injury and the team is sticking with him at least for this week and perhaps longer, depending on James’s injury recovery timeline and how well JPJ holds his own at the position.
