Silver And Black Pride
The first week of the preseason is special for every rookie. While the scoreboards don’t matter and no one cares who wins or loses, it’s the first time suiting up for an NFL game for hundreds of players. However, there’s one first-year pro whose situation stands out among the rest: Las Vegas Raiders offensive lineman Laki Tasi.
Tasi’s story has been well-documented. He was born in Samoa, moved to Australia and grew up playing rugby instead of football, which he didn’t pick up until December of 2024, before being selected to participate in the NFL’s International Player Pathway (IPP) program.
So, last Thursday’s contest between the Raiders and the Seattle Seahawks wasn’t just the former rugby star’s first professional football game; it was his first football game, period.
“Yeah, it was important to me to celebrate the fact that he’s playing in his first football game in his life,” head coach Pete Carroll said of Tasi. “And so you see him go out for the coin toss, representing the rooks with the other captains that were game captains, and the fact that he played in the game and did some positive things, that’s a long, long ways to come.
“Most of us played football when we were 10 years old. He started a couple of months ago, and so it was exciting to see him do something and have fun out there, and I saw a little celebration after a good block. And to me, it’s a real treasure just to watch him develop.”
Carroll mentions the lineman’s development, which has certainly been interesting to date. Obviously, he’s been playing the sport for less than a year, and that creates its own set of difficult challenges. On top of that, he was originally introduced and trained as a defensive lineman before flipping sides of the ball in Las Vegas. So, tack on a position change to the series of hurdles Tasi has had to jump over since picking up the sport.
Despite all of that, the Samoan-Australian had an impressive debut. He participated in 13 snaps, all at right guard, and earned an 84.6 grade from Pro Football Focus, sixth-best among qualifying guards during last weekend’s action.
Additionally, PFF didn’t have him on the hook for any pressures in pass protection, and he delivered a few pancake blocks in the running game, seen in the video below from The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen.
All of this being said, Tasi is still a long way away from seeing action in the regular season and likely will spend the majority, if not all, of the 2025 campaign on the Raiders’ practice squad. The NFL allows teams to have an extra practice squad spot for IPP participants, so it makes sense to stash him there if he isn’t going to be on the field during regular-season games.
However, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities for him to develop into a quality offensive lineman.
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