Could Jackson Powers-Johnson help shore up Raiders’ blocking woes?

Raiders coach Antonio Pierce jokingly took offense to a question asking him if rookie second-round draft pick Jackson Powers-Johnson would get on the field for the first time in the team’s upcoming game against the Carolina Panthers.

“I mean, he was on the field a couple times in the (last) game,” Pierce responded with a smirk. “You didn’t see him?”

The 6-foot-3, 328-pound guard out of the University of Oregon caught the attention of the television cameras on a couple occasions when he rushed out to celebrate big plays and an eventual victory, in the Raiders’ Week 2 trip to Baltimore.

In a tank top and shorts while inactive for the second straight game to start his NFL career, the 21-year-old was one of the most vocal Raiders on the sidelines.

“Not a lot of things I can (repeat),” Powers-Johnson said when asked what he was saying to teammates. “Just a lot of excitement.”

Count on his energy being even higher when the Raiders play their first game of the season at Allegiant Stadium starting at 1:25 p.m. Sunday against the Panthers.

Pierce strongly intimated that Powers-Johnson will be active for the first time after practicing in full for the last few weeks and overcoming injuries and illnesses that held him out of most of training camp.

The Raiders could really use him. The offensive line has been Las Vegas’ biggest trouble spot during a 1-1 start to the season, particularly on the left side.

The Raiders were grooming Powers-Johnson to be their starting left guard in the summer before he missed so much time. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him get the nod over veterans Cody Whitehair and Andrus Peat, who started the first and second games respectively, as a first-stringer on Sunday.

“We’re excited for him to get on the grass,” offensive coordinator Luke Getsy said. “I think, to his credit, to not have much experience or time on task, the knowledge that he has of what we’re doing, what we’re asking him to do, is pretty cool to see from a young guy.”

The Raiders are at the bottom of the league in blocking by any and every metric, especially in the run game where they’ve gained an NFL-low 98 yards on 39 carries. The unit has fallen to No. 29 in Pro Football Focus’ offensive-line rankings after finishing at No. 10 the past two seasons.

The Raiders are 31^st in power success rate, converting only 33% of run plays on third- or fourth-and-short per DVOA. They’re 28^th in adjusted line yards, a measure of the offensive line’s responsibility in the run game, and 27^th in stuffed rate, a percentage of how often running backs get hit at the line of scrimmage or in the backfield.

Pierce has repeatedly refused to place blame on running backs Zamir White and Alexander Mattison and instead expressed that the blocking needs to improve. Getsy has preached patience with a relatively new group of players adjusting to a new scheme.

The rotating spot at left guard is technically the only Raider offensive lineman who didn’t start for the team last season but the whole unit is trying to acclimate to Getsy’s zone-blocking scheme.

Las Vegas had been a power-run team in the past, and that’s also where scouts tabbed Powers-Johnson as the most effective. There have been murmurs that the Raiders may go back to some of those principles starting this week.

Powers-Johnson’s description of what he enjoys most about the offense sure makes it sound like they’re back to prioritizing straight-ahead, smashmouth running instead of tasking the running backs with finding open gaps.

“Running off the ball killing people,” Powers-Johnson said. “I think that’s the No. 1 thing. It’s not passive. It’s not position blocking. We’re going to run down your throat, and we’re going to come at you as hard as we can.”

It looked like Powers-Johnson would have an easy first assignment in the NFL playing next to left tackle Kolton Miller, but the franchise pillar hasn’t been the same through two games this season. After missing almost all of training camp with a shoulder injury, Miller has given up five sacks in the first two games — matching the total he allowed in the last five seasons per PFF.

And he arguably hasn’t even been the biggest problem up front for the Raiders.

Right guard Dylan Parham is the only linemen who’s graded positively in both pass and run blocking by PFF so far this season with center Andre James and right tackle Thayer Munford also getting off to rocky starts.

Every lineman that’s played for the Raiders has rated out higher in pass protection than in run blocking.

But Pierce was encouraged with how the unit closed out against the Ravens. It gave quarterback Gardner Minshew time to lead a fourth-quarter comeback and finally cleared some space for White on the final three offensive plays to set up a game-winning field goal.

He's challenging the linemen to carry the slight momentum over, and Powers-Johnson’s arrival might make it happen.

“The cohesion we have is second to none in my opinion,” Powers-Johnson said. “We have a lot to get better at, and that’s the most exciting thing. We have the mentality and the want-to. We’re just a couple steps away from getting to where we need to be, but we’re going to get there and that’s the best part about it.”

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