Over the offseason, the Raiders made the bold move to trade away their Pro Bowl center in Rodney Hudson for just a third-round pick. One of the reasons they made that move was due to the potential of Andre James.
In the first month of the season, it was hard to see why the Raiders made that move. But over the last few games, he’s looked like one of the better centers in the league.
In a recent article by Pro Football Focus, they reported that James was the team’s highest-graded player from Week 9. In fact, he was the highest-graded center in the entire league during this week of action.
The Raiders run game showed up against the Giants 💪
The four highest graded Raiders were a part of the dominating run game ☠
1. Andre James – 83.1
2. Kenyan Drake – 82.2
3. Kolton Miller – 80.4
4. Josh Jacobs – 77.6 pic.twitter.com/8wgRnBMPvh— PFF Las Vegas Raiders (@PFF_Raiders) November 8, 2021
James is still a relatively young and inexperienced player as he has played a total of 666 snaps in his career. But it has to be encouraging for the Raiders that he has significantly improved over the last four or five games.
If James (and Alex Leatherwood) can continue to make big improvements, the Raiders have a chance to have a competent offensive line by the season’s end. We aren’t there yet, but things do appear to be getting better on the interior offensive line for the Raiders.
