![]() Here, Leatherwood was matched up against starting defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah. He gave up a sack.Īs a result of his poor punching technique, he’s not confident in his hand usage, which starts a chain reaction of more poor technique.ġ3:34 remaining in the first quarter, third-and-6 ”Īfter Leatherwood got his outside arm chopped, he had too much weight forward, giving him no shot of recovering. It’s all parallel to the ground with his arms, or lower. He never really does any of that and gets actual power, strength and leverage working up. “You can think of it as like shoulders more under the hips, or the hips unlocking a little bit like a power clean. “I’m sure there’s some timing thing with feet, hands and whatever, but he’s not forcing his body into good position when he does use his hands,” Schwartz said. He jabs with his hand straight out, making his arm susceptible to getting swiped or chopped like in the image above. Leatherwood also doesn’t get much power when he punches. However, Leatherwood keeps his hands low and has a tendency to punch low, which is not a good combination. Schwartz said he kept his hands low when he played so he could punch up. Leatherwood likes to keep his hands low, which is fine. On this play, Leatherwood matched up with Porter Gustin. ![]() It makes him top heavy, and he’s susceptible to falling on his face.”ġ1:40 remaining in the second quarter, second-and-10 “When the defender does anything to his right arm, he’s got no leverage and no pressure going upwards. “(Leatherwood’s) biggest mechanical problem is he punches too low,” Schwartz said. In this instance, he was able to push the end past the quarterback, but you don’t want to see your right tackle in this position too often. And he didn’t try to get more depth because he was being too patient, trying not to get beat by an inside move.Īs a result, Leatherwood had to make a late recovery and lunge at the end. When Leatherwood finally turned his attention to the end, he didn’t have enough depth. Instead of setting straight outside to the defensive end after the snap, Leatherwood had his eyes on the defensive tackle and helped his guard by punching the defensive tackle with his inside hand. Here, Leatherwood has a three-technique defensive tackle lined up inside of him and a defensive end in a wide 9 outside of him. But too many times he’s underplaying the block, not understanding his position relative to where the QB is and where he should be, and then puts himself in a position to easily give up the edge.”ģ:39 remaining in the first quarter, third-and-3 “It also looks like he’s taught to stay more under control and not set so deep so he doesn’t get beat inside and stays inside/out. “His attention is a little too much on that in a few of those clips,” Schwartz said. To help break down some of Leatherwood’s technical flaws, four-time All-Pro right tackle Mitchell Schwartz looked at Leatherwood’s one-on-one reps against the Dolphins with me.Īccording to Schwartz, Leatherwood appears to be taught to “drag on the three-technique defensive tackle,” meaning holding his left arm out to keep space in the B gap and help the right guard. Following that performance, veteran Jermaine Eluemunor started over Leatherwood at right tackle in the Raiders’ joint practices with the Patriots this week. Leatherwood had an opportunity to anchor himself into a starting right tackle role in Week 2 of the preseason against the Dolphins, yet he played so poorly that he was benched after giving up a sack early in the second quarter. ![]() The Raiders’ new regime, led by coach Josh McDaniels, gave Leatherwood a chance to compete at right tackle again this offseason, but he was losing his training camp battle to veteran Brandon Parker and even seventh-round rookie Thayer Munford before both players suffered injuries. The regime led by former coach Jon Gruden fell in love with his explosiveness and mean streak and believed that he could improve his technique under then-offensive line coach Tom Cable, but Leatherwood struggled in four starts at right tackle as a rookie, causing the Raiders to move him to right guard for the remainder of the season. Alex Leatherwood’s unpolished technique is one reason many felt the Raiders reached for the right tackle in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft.
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