Analysis: How ‘the Patriot Way’ could help the Raiders fix their o-line

By Case Keefer (contact)

Wednesday, July 27, 2022 | 2 a.m.

In 2014 and 2015, the New England Patriots’ offensive line was reeling.

The Patriots ended up winning the Super Bowl to cap the 2014 season anyway, but early in the year, quarterback Tom Brady struggled so badly behind lax protection that some wondered if he should retire. A 41-14 Monday Night Football loss to the Chiefs spurred the now infamous news conference where Patriots coach Bill Belichick answered every question with“we’re on to Cincinnati."

The next year, the Patriots reached the AFC championship but lost 20-18 to the Denver Broncos in a game where Brady endured four sacks and 17 quarterback hits. New England ranked No. 25 in Pro Football Focus’s annual year-end offensive line power ratings, two spots down from their No. 23 standing in 2014.

In the six seasons since then, the Patriots have never failed to rank outside the top 10 in the same metric.

This is all relevant to this year’s Las Vegas Raiders because of the new coaching staff’s strong ties to the Patriots. Coach Josh McDaniels, offensive coordinator Mick Lombardi and offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo all came to Las Vegas from New England this offseason.

The architect of the Patriots’ dramatic turnaround up front, legendary offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia, who rejoined the Patriots in 2016, won’t be around but he was a mentor of Bricillo’s before reretiring in 2019.

“I had an opportunity to work for coach Belichick and then work underneath Dante Scarnecchia,” Bricillo said at Raiders' minicamp in June. “Those are two greats at what they do. I would be ignorant not to say that that hasn’t influenced me greatly.”

This year’s Raiders, now a week into training camp at the team’s Henderson headquarters, are in a similar position to the 2016 Patriots on the offensive line. In the last two years, blocking has been the only unit holding back an offense that otherwise rates above average across the board.

Pro Football Focus graded the Raiders’ offensive line at No. 24 in 2020, and No. 28 last season among the NFL’s 32 teams.

Las Vegas committed few resources to fixing the problems up front in the offseason by bringing in new personnel. The Raiders ignored the need in free agency and then used only third- and seventh-round picks (on Memphis guard Dylan Parham and Ohio State tackle Thayer Munford, respectively) in the NFL Draft.

That’s eerily reminiscent of how the Patriots proceeded with their own reclamation project six years ago, as they eschewed high-priced free agents to select Joe Thuney in the third round and Ted Karras in the sixth round of the 2016 NFL Draft. New Raiders general manager Dave Ziegler was notably the Patriots’ director of pro personnel back then, working closely with Belichick on which players the team brought in.

Scarnecchia ultimately got the most out of a young and previously underachieving offensive line, which led the Patriots to three consecutive Super Bowl berths including two wins. Bricillo now needs to do the same in Las Vegas with talented players who are yet to put it all together like second-year tackle/guard Alex Leatherwood, center Andre James and guard John Simpson.

“I think Coach Carmen is doing a great job at his job,” Simpson said. “We are all taking everything one day at a time. Everybody learns different. So, some guys learn on the field. Some guys learn in the classroom. And with them doing everything that they can, we try to do all those things. I feel like that’s a big help to us because it’s a new system and if we keep learning the way they’re teaching us, we’re going to be pretty good.”

None of this guarantees an offensive line turnaround, of course, but it should be comforting to Raiders’ fans to know that some of those tasked with directing the improvement have been a part of the same challenge previously.

Bricillo’s embrace of Scarnecchia’s principles has been evident in training camp. In a lecture at a Notre Dame coaching clinic in 2013, Scarnecchia’s key point was that an offensive line must be unified and “see the game through one set of eyes.”

The Raiders’ first padded practice comes today, and without the physical component, Bricillo and McDaniels have repeatedly remarked that they were judging linemen based almost solely on their ability to communicate with each other so far.

As far as the finer details, Scarnecchia emphasizes that no lineman is above perceived grunt work like holding bags while teammates practice blocking technique. Sure enough, at Sunday’s practice, bigger-name players who started last year like Leatherwood and James took turns holding bags for teammates more toward the end of the roster.

The Patriots have also often stressed playing their offensive linemen at multiple different positions, which is quickly becoming a hallmark of the new Raiders’ regime. Las Vegas has one of the better left tackles in the NFL in Kolton Miller, so he hasn’t moved around at all but nearly every other offensive lineman has done so.

James and Parham have split first-team snaps close to evenly at center. Parham has additionally rotated in at guard with Simpson, Lester Cotton and Jermaine Eluemunor. The official roster still lists Leatherwood as both a guard and tackle, but he’s played almost exclusively the latter so far in practice as he and Brandon Parker swapping in and out.

“Not really,” Leatherwood said when asked if the position switching bothered him in minicamp. “Because the value of being a versatile player and just having that value to play anywhere on the line, that adds value to you as a player, as a teammate. It’s all just contribution to the team.”

Most expect Leatherwood to earn a starting spot for the second consecutive season, but that’s no lock given how much opportunity all the other linemen have gotten so far at training camp. If last year’s staff and front office, led by general manager Mike Mayock, returned, Leatherwood would have been a virtual shoo-in since they were the ones to use a first-round draft pick on him in 2021.

The likes of Ziegler, McDaniels and Bricillo would surely prefer to get the most out of a first-round pick too, but they should also have less of an attachment to a holdover player like Leatherwood. That’s a good thing, as it makes it more likely that the players who earn it most in training camp will be on the field.

Sometimes all it takes is a few fresh sets of eyes to change the fortunes of a position group. It can’t hurt when those fresh sets of eyes have witnessed such a change in the same spot before.

“It’s a matter right now truly as a group building some cohesion, understanding the system,” Bricillo said.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or