Going into the 2022 NFL Draft, the Raiders will likely have the same offensive line in Week 1 of the 2022 season as they had in the playoff game. That might not be super exciting for fans, but there is a lot of hope in the organization that the unit has the right players in place.
In a recent article by Paul Gutierrez of ESPN, he spoke with general manager Dave Ziegler about the offensive line. When talking about the right tackle spot, Ziegler called Parker an “ascending player” and someone to be excited about heading into the 2022 season.
Here is another quote from Ziegler on the former third-round pick from North Carolina A&T:
“He’s an athletic guy for his size and he’s a guy that I think can continue to, again, Brandon is not a finished product. … He can continue to get better. He had a good experience of playing a lot of snaps last year … there’s a lot of learning that comes from that. All those things were exciting.”
Parker did improve during the 2021 season, but is that enough to be excited about him at right tackle going into the year? Probably not. The Raiders will surely explore every option to get better at that spot and could certainly add another player in the draft.
Time will tell if Parker is the starting right tackle for the 2022 season. But the fact that the front office likes him quite a bit should give us a bit of hope that he is still on the rise as a player.
