Bolts From The Blue
The Chargers are bringing in Andre James who started at center for the Raiders over the past four seasons.
The Chargers are continuing their goal of reshaping the interior of the offensive line as they’ve announced the signing of former Raiders starting center Andre James. James has held down the pivot in Las Vegas the past four seasons and is now coming back to Los Angeles after starring for the UCLA Bruins in college.
Contract details are unknown and we’ll update this post as soon as they’re made public.
At 6’4 and 300 pounds, James has 61-of-80 career games since entering the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2019. After playing just 117 total snaps his first two seasons, James won the starting center job for the Raiders in 2021. During the 2022 season, James was a part of the Raiders offensive line that helped running back Josh Jacobs rush for a league-leading 1,653 yards and score 12 touchdowns.
Despite the starting experience on his resume, I’m not entirely sold this move is the Chargers signifying who their next starting center will be. James was at his best in 2023, but the 2024 season was his lowest-graded year by PFF since he won the starting job. His season grade of 55.6 ranked 29th among the 32 centers to play at least 500 snaps. Bozeman ranked 23rd with a grade of 61.2.
Even looking back at both of their careers, their seasonal grades are very comparable. The main difference being that James has been graded as a better pass protector over his career while Bozeman has been the better run blocker per PFF’s grades. You’d think that would mean the team sees Bozeman as the better fit, but after seeing Herbert get hit so frequently against the Texans, Joe Hortiz and Jim Harbaugh are more than willing to take a shot on a pass protector and coach him up in the run game than vice versa.
