Raiders’ tackling woes evident in preseason tie with Seahawks

By Canadian Press on August 8, 2025.

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — The Raiders tackled — or, at least, attempted to tackle — for the first time Thursday night.

And it showed.

Las Vegas had a number of missed tackles in its 23-23 tie with Seattle, especially earlier in the game when more of its front-line defenders were on the field.

The question is whether that was more of a long-term cause for concern or typically what’s expected in the first preseason game.

“I’m chalking it up to it’s the first preseason game,” Raiders coach Pete Carroll said Friday. “I’m concerned, yeah. That way we tackled stunk, and it was all open-field stuff for the most part. … That’s why you play these games.”

Making matters worse for the Raiders, they went against the Seahawks’ backups. But it’s not as if Las Vegas played all its starters for an entire first half, either.

The Raiders emptied their bench fairly quickly, and by the second half, the field was populated on both sides by players fairly far down the depth chart.

“Progress was made in the second half,” Carroll said. “We were playing a lot cleaner and guys just got used to running and hitting. But we need to continue to emphasize it like we have been, but that’s the first shot. It could have been better. I thought we worked on it hard enough to show better than that, but we’ve got work to do.”

The Raiders will have a much better idea of where they stand this upcoming week from a tackling standpoint as well as the other issues that face the team. They will have a joint practice with San Francisco on Thursday and then will face the 49ers in a preseason game two days later.

The joint practice will be especially telling because both teams will want to see how their starters perform. But, at least from the Raiders’ perspective, the preseason meeting also should provide some clarity because Carroll said the starters will receive more playing time than they got in Seattle.

“We won’t be tackling in the practice, but that’ll be a good part of the preparation to get to the game,” Carroll said. “Our guys just need to see the tempo and the speed of really good clubs. You’ve got to play good teams if you want to get good and so this is a great opportunity for us.”

Jeanty’s first playing opportunity

Ashton Jeanty, drafted sixth overall this year, played the first series and had minus-1 yard on three carries.

The Raiders gained 104 yards on the ground, with Chris Collier rushing for a team-high 42 yards on nine carries.

“We ran the most fundamental plays you could run in our format of going through the preseason,” Carroll said. “It will continue to be pretty basic just to keep our edge for the opener and the first three or four games. The teams don’t know who we are and so they’re going to have to find out as we go.

“So we were real basic, and we didn’t get the kind of movement that we wanted. Like, Ashton didn’t get a chance. We picked up a little bit of an edge later in the game, and you saw us hitting the line of scrimmage pretty well.”

Interior linemen get extra work

One of the main storylines in training camp was how Jordan Meredith surprisingly took over at center, with Jackson Powers-Johnson moving to right guard. Powers-Johnson, drafted in the second round in 2024, came out of minicamp as the expected starter at center.

Powers-Johnson did play both positions as a rookie, but he was thought to be a more natural center. Meredith, a third-year pro, hadn’t played that spot in the NFL.

Both players were in the game well into the third quarter against the Seahawks.

“We wanted to really have a lot of film on them, and so it’s a good first step,” Carroll said. “I thought Jordan was in command of what was going on in a difficult situation. We wanted to see how far he could go with handling the noise and the silent counts and all that kind of stuff, and he really did a good job of that. But we’re not ready to make any declaration on anything. We’ve just got to keep on working.”

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Mark Anderson, The Associated Press