Sportsnaut
The Las Vegas Raiders‘ new coaching staff shuffled position groups, which led to the departure of several key players from last year’s team, but it also created opportunities for others. Will Putnam was a beneficiary, Laki Tasi made a strong impression and Thomas Harper didn’t fit. Raiders Daily breaks down a few players who will provide depth this year.
Beat reporters saw one particular move as a shocker on cutdown day, though in a positive way.
In response to a query in his weekly mailbag, the Las Vegas Review-Journal‘s Vincent Bonsignore shared his biggest surprise.
“It was a surprise that center Will Putnam made the team,” Bonsignore wrote. “But the undrafted free agent out of Clemson, who spent last year on the Raiders’ practice squad, deserved to.”
Levi Edwards of Raiders.com filled in the blanks as to why Putnam made the initial 53-man roster.
“The decision is a chain effect of Jordan Meredith switching from guard to center,” Edwards wrote. “With all signs pointing to Meredith starting and Jackson Powers-Johnson being placed at right guard, it opened up the need for a backup center.
Based on that theory, you can forget about Powers-Johnson sliding back over to center if Meredith struggles at the pivot. Unless Meredith and Putnam suffer injuries, it’s clear his future with the club is at guard for the foreseeable future.
Listed at 6-foot-4, 301 pounds on the team’s official website, Putnam has a body type similar to Meredith, who’s listed at 6-foot-2, 301 pounds. For context, Powers-Johnson is billed at 6-foot-3, 325 pounds, and Dylan Parham has bulked up to 332 pounds.
Clearly, a player’s size plays a factor in his potential role on the Raiders offensive line.
Read: NFL Predictions 2025: Projecting Win-Loss Records for All 32 NFL Teams
According to Raiders.com’s Rachel Gossen, Laki Tasi met with general manager John Spytek and defensive line coach Rob Leonard, but the coaching staff almost immediately moved him to the offensive line group, which required the former Rugby player to make a quick adjustment.
“Though he’d been learning how to play defensive line, Pete Carroll and the coaching staff felt his raw talent would be better on the offensive line, meaning he now had even more to learn,” Gossen wrote.
Tasi took the transition in stride, though he had some expected hiccups along the way. Meredith recalls the 6-foot-6, 373-pounder learning on the fly.
“He’s developed a bunch,” Jordan Meredith said. “I mean, seeing him from day one, he’s never played football before, so coming in and learning what a Ron-Lou is, or whatever the play call is, and then now, like he would go the wrong direction and now he’s out there – you guys all watched the film probably or saw the game – just [to] see him go out there and dominate the way he did was awesome.”
Las Vegas cut Tasi, but...
