The smartest thing Jon Gruden has done during his time as the Raiders’ head coach was reinvesting in the offensive line over the past two seasons. It started with the selection of Kolton Miller in 2018 and continued when the team convinced Richie Incognito to come out of retirement to fill their left guard void.
But the best move was signing former Patriots’ offensive tackle Trent Brown to a record-setting contract in free agency. While the move was undoubtedly risky, Brown proved the Raiders right in 2019 as he was a dominant right tackle for the team.
In a recent article by Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, he polled 50 NFL executives, asking them to rank the league’s offensive tackles 1-15 ahead of the 2020 season. Coming in at No. 9 was Brown, who ranked as the No. 3 right tackle in the NFL. Take a look at what one long-time defensive coordinator had to say about the star right tackle:
“When he’s on, he’s as good as anybody in the NFL. Definitely some inconsistency in his game, some lapses in focus, concentration. But particularly as a run blocker, he’s as dominating as there is — when he wants to be.”
Brown’s two biggest problems in the NFL have been his consistency and his weight as they are often tied to one another. If he plays at a heavier weight, he can become less consistent from snap to snap. But to his credit, it hasn’t been an issue over the last two seasons as he has now dominated at both left and right tackle for the Patriots and Raiders.
If Brown can continue to stay healthy and play at this level over the next few years, the decision to pay him during the previous offseason will continue to be a wise one. Brown is arguably the league’s best right tackle entering the 2020 season.
