James' Steady Presence Anchors Raiders' Offensive Line

The Las Vegas Raiders have spent the last few seasons putting together their offensive line. Although they've experienced some ups and downs, they finished last season as one of the best offensive lines in the NFL.

Josh Jacobs, leading the league in rushing last season, proved as much.

Center Andre James, whom the Raiders drafted in 2019, is now in his second year in Josh McDaniels' system. James, like many other Raiders players in their second year with McDaniels, feels even more confident heading into this season.

"Now I'm actually just starting to feel a lot more comfortable because I've got a year under my belt with this," James said. "Its always nice having a having a year in your past kind of understanding the system. Now you can worry more about technique and other stuff like that."

James shared that having a year of experience helps, as does familiarity with his fellow offensive linemen.

"To me the O-line is all about cohesiveness and jelling together," James said. "Like I've said before a lot of times, that chemistry playing between different guys you've played with before, it's very helpful. It's a very familiar feeling."

While this is James' second season playing with McDaniels as his head coach and Mick Lombardi as his offensive coordinator, it will be Jimmy Garoppolo's first. James sees Garoppolo learning everything quickly.

"Yeah, he's came in and adapted pretty quick," James said. "I think he came in as a rookie with this system. So yeah, he came in and I'm really proud to see how he's grown with it so far."

Garoppolo's new center echoes the feelings many others have about Las Vegas' new quarterback.

"He's cool, calm and collected, man," James added. "You want to be with a guy like that, especially at the quarterback position. So, having him in the huddle leading us, wouldn't expect anything else."

James, who has only missed two games in the last three seasons, is focused on keeping his new quarterback upright.

"My job and the rest of the other four guys on the offensive line is to keep our quarterback healthy at all times," James said. "So, that job doesn't change. We want to keep him as healthy and as clean as we can for every game."

Las Vegas' offensive line keeping Garoppolo healthy and clean is imperative for the Raiders' success this season. It might be the most crucial task on everyone's list.

If it isn't, it should be.

The Silver and Black open the regular season at the Denver Broncos on Sunday, Sept. 10, at 4:25 p.m. EDT/1:25 p.m. PDT.

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