Many people don’t believe that the Raiders traded away center Rodney Hudson — a rock for six seasons — in part because they have a lot of confidence in Andre James, who joined the team as an undrafted tackle out of UCLA in 2018. Even James signing a three-year contract extension for $12.5 million last week didn’t appease the doubters.
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Well, here’s offensive line coach Tom Cable on losing Hudson.
“That’s tough, that’s tough,” Cable said in a phone interview Sunday. “He has all this knowledge and what a great leader he is, too. When you’re trying to build a top-level team, you need people of high quality and character like that. It’s tough to lose a guy like Rodney, but at the same time I think those are a lot of the characteristics that Andre James brings to this deal. He just hasn’t done it as much, obviously.”
James started one game for an injured Hudson in 2019, but he played well. Even though the Raiders signed former Texans center Nick Martin to provide some competition, the contract extension is very revealing. Cable kind of knew the 6-foot-4, 300-pound James was going to take over one day back in 2019, when he told him he wanted him to play center.
“He didn’t show any fear of it,” Cable said. “He has a lot of things physically and mentally that reminded me of Max Unger, who I had in Seattle. He was a tackle at Oregon and made the transition and became an All-Pro.”
The 6-5, 305-pound Unger, who shifted to center as a junior at Oregon, was a second-round pick who played 11 seasons for the Seahawks and Saints. He was first-team All-Pro in 2012 and made the Pro Bowl three times.
“It was easy to make that comparison because Max and Andre had so many similar characteristics,” Cable said. “He moves like Max, he does this like Max, … he thinks like Max. … And as soon as he demonstrated a lack of fear with it, that’s your green light.”
Martin was a four-year starter at Houston, and will back up James as well as be able to fill in at guard if needed. And obviously, Martin is coming in thinking he can win the starting job. That’s a good thing.
“You want to create competition,” Cable said. “I think that’s really important and I think Nick can do that. He has played center in this league at a high level and done some cool things. To me, if you can create competition at every spot, you’re elated because you have a chance to develop a quality group again.”
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Besides Hudson, the Raiders also traded right guard Gabe Jackson and right tackle Trent Brown this month. That’s three-fifths of a grizzled front line that the Raiders paid $51.4 million for last season and saw play three snaps together.
Cable will miss all that talent, no doubt, but is fired up for the opportunity to build something new. Left tackle Kolton Miller is the one returning starter, while guards Richie Incognito and Denzelle Good have started games and were re-signed this month.
“This is really exciting,” Cable said. “We have a nice core group here, with Andre and Kolton and John Simpson and then you get Richie and Denzelle back so you’ve got a nice group to start working with, going forward. We hate losing those guys but that’s the NFL game — there’s always going to be transitions and cycles, so I am used to it. That’s part of the deal.
“I am excited about it because I think we have some quality people here.”
There is a three-man competition for the two starting guard spots, among Incognito, Simpson and Good. Simpson, a fourth-round pick a year ago, filled in and started two games last season, with the second one going a lot smoother than the first.
“Having all three of those guys is pretty cool,” Cable said. “They’re going to raise everybody up. John is going to push those two guys, and their knowledge and experience will help him. Once he has an offseason to develop his skill — and hopefully we get to do that this year — he’ll just take off.”
Not having an offseason program at the facility or a preseason really hurt Simpson.
“That’s really difficult for the guys on the line of scrimmage,” Cable said. “You’ve seen this for a long time, I know, that usually young linemen every day during the preseason there is just extreme growth. They didn’t get to have that. The first time that John really put it out there for everyone to see was that second game of the season when Richie got hurt.
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“John has to learn how to handle failure a little better and press through, but he did nothing but get better and that gets you excited.”
The Raiders are set at left tackle with Miller, who they will sign to an extension soon enough, and Cable thinks Brandon Parker has a huge opportunity at right tackle.
“Kolton is as good as it gets, and Brandon really progressed in his three years,” Cable said.
Parker was a third-round pick out of North Carolina A&T in 2018, started 12 games his rookie year and then seven games in the two seasons since.
“He was pushed before he was ready that first year and had to play,” Cable said, referring to Donald Penn’s season-ending groin injury in Week 4 of that season that forced Parker into action. “Physically, he wasn’t ready to play. But he has done nothing but grow and get stronger. As long as he stays clean with his footwork, he is going to challenge to play.”
All signs point to the Raiders drafting a tackle early and creating more competition. It’s unlikely, but Good could even be a factor at that spot.
Good, a six-year veteran who started 14 games for the Raiders last season, is the X-factor.
“He told me that he played his best football being a Raider, and I think that mentality and the way he pushes himself, he can help us at guard and at right tackle,” Cable said. “Having positional flexibility is so important in today’s game.”
(Photo of John Simpson, left, and Andre James: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
