The Las Vegas Raiders’ perfect handling position will be one of the biggest training camp battles to keep an eye on for the next month or so. Entering camp, Brandon Parker and Alex Leatherwood were expected to be the top contenders, however, with seventh-round rookie Thayer Munford emerging to make it a three-horse race.
According to Vincent Bonsignor Las Vegas Review-JournalMunford was taking off representatives from the Raiders’ first and second team offenses, representatives who were at Leatherwood the day before yesterday.
Something to keep an eye on: There were times during the second half @ Raiders Practice in which Thayer Munford was getting reps with the first/second team usually going to Alex Leatherwood. We’ll talk to Alex later today.
— Vincent Bonsignor (@vinnybonsignor) 30 July 2022
Ohio State’s Product Is No Bending, That Was Pro Football Focus’ Fourth highest graded tackle (91.8) in 2020 before switching guard last season. So, he’s more than capable of handling himself, but that doesn’t bode well for a Las Vegas first-round pick from a year ago.
What could have been worse, according to the presence of several media members, Leatherwood looked quite ‘disappointed’ During the press briefing after the exercise on Saturday. Every answer he gave to reporters’ questions was very brief – maybe a sentence or two – and here’s all he had to say about what he wanted to improve:
“Nothing really specific, but just improve my game overall. Pass pro and run games, you can never be perfect in a game, so always work on everything.”
In defense of Leatherwood, athletics Tashan Reed The second-year supporter tweeted that it wasn’t all that different from normal, and that he’s usually short and monotonous with the media. So, it could be a matter of perspective and maybe he just had a bad practice.
That being said, our Marcus Johnson, who was also in the camp, told me that the 2021 first-round pick did not take rep with the first team yesterday, which, obviously, is not a good sign. It’s early in the camp and the Raiders haven’t even played their first preseason game yet, but timing is tickin’.
We’ll get our first look at Leatherwood and the rest of the crew for the Hall of Fame game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. PST.
