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Raiders nab dominant run blocking guard in Kelechi Osemele

Baltimore Ravens guard Kelechi Osemele (72) blocks during an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014, in Cleveland. Baltimore won 23-21. (AP Photo/David Richard)

The deal: Raiders acquire Kelechi Osemele, who will receieve $36.6 million in first three years of five-year, $58.5 million deal.

What it means for the Raiders: It’s difficult to say exactly what this means just yet as there is the possibility that the Raiders play him at left tackle, but I’m assuming he’ll slot in at right guard since he has such limited experience and average results at left tackle. There may not be a more powerful guard in the entire NFL though than the 6-6, 333-pound Osemele. It shows in the run game where he’s led all guards in +1.0 graded blocks (dominant blocks) over the past two seasons with 14. He’ll replace our 70th-ranked guard last season, J’Marcus Webb, to form one of the best guard tandems in football with Gabe Jackson. Over the past two seasons, Osemele held the fourth-highest run blocking grade among all guards. All the knocks on him come in pass protection where he has been right around average for his career. They made him the highest-paid guard in football, but they’ll reap the rewards with what figures to be a dominant running game this fall.

What it means for the Ravens: The feared running game that they leaned so heavily on the past two seasons may be starting to crumble. This was a line that two years ago allowed Justin Forsett to lead the league in yards per carry, but it was predicated on not having any weak links in the chain. John Urschel is the likely replacement at the moment. He looked a competent replacement at guard his rookie year in 2014, but struggled mightily to a -13.8 grade with an extended look at center a year ago.

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