We’re still a ways away from training camp and the Las Vegas Raiders having to make any decisions on the 53-man roster, but OTAs are underway in Las Vegas, and thus, the battles for positioning on the depth chart have already begun. That’s the focus for this week’s mailbag as we get closer to the dead period on the Raiders’ calendar.
A: The “problem” with having success in the NFL is that once a team gets some, every other club is going to want a piece of it. So, if the Raiders have a dramatic turnaround, expect some coaches to get poached in the offseason, especially if Mendoza plays well.
There is going to be at least one team (and probably multiple) that is picking toward the top of the draft, will have fired their head coach and will be looking to take a rookie quarterback. If Mendoza is coming off a successful campaign and the Raiders pull off a quick turnaround, a guy like offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko will be a head coach target in the offseason.
Janocko is still a young coach, just turned 38, and this will be his first season as a coordinator. But another organization is going to love the fact that he has extensive experience working with quarterbacks, has won a Super Bowl recently and been a part of a quick turnaround. Again, this is working under the assumption that Las Vegas exceeds expectations this year.
All of that being said, I do think there’s a good chance that the Raiders can keep the majority of their coaching staff after next season. The team will likely have to be in the playoffs for their coaches to be hot commodities in the offseason, and (sorry to be the bearer of bad news) I just don’t see that happening with a young roster in 2026.
A: To pick up right where I left off, good question! LOL!
Honestly, I don’t have a strong conviction on where Zuhn will play for the Raiders. I think his best position in the NFL is at center, where his arm length won’t be as big of an issue (he’s in the 47th percentile for that position), and it’s easier to give center help in the running game via combo blocks than it is at guard in a zone blocking scheme. However, unless something happens to Tyler Linderbaum, Zuhn has to find a different spot to see the field in Vegas.
Ultimately, everything leads me back to the right tackle spot. That’s a big question mark for the Raiders, and if the coaching staff doesn’t trust D.J. Glaze or Charles Grant to protect Mendoza, Zuhn at least has a good track record of keeping quarterbacks clean in college. That being said, I’m a big believer in Grant and like him to win that job in training camp.
A: Keeping the theme going, I wasn’t a fan of John Spytek’s third-round picks, whereas a lot of other people seem to be high on them. With Zuhn, I just don’t know where he’s going to play in Las Vegas. I get the feeling this is going to be the Caleb Rogers/Charles Grant situation all over again, where a top 100 pick barely sees the field as a rookie. And if Zuhn is playing, that likely means Rogers or Grant aren’t for the second year in a row.
With Keyron Crawford, it’s a situation where I dislike the pick, not the player. I get the idea with Crawford. He’s a high-level athlete who hasn’t played football for very long, so he has a high ceiling. I just think he’s a bigger project than most people realize, especially for a guy who was taken in the Top 75. Also, with how the edge group is currently constructed, he’s probably not going to see the field much as a rookie, too.
To me, I feel like Spytek didn’t learn his lesson from last year and overdrafted a pair of prospects in the third round. Granted, Pete Carroll’s coaching staff was a big part of that problem in 2025, and obviously, that’s not an issue anymore.
On a positive note, I think I’m more optimistic about Jack Bech than a lot of other people. I think he’s a good fit with Klint Kubiak and never felt like the Raiders had to draft a wide receiver early this year. I’m expecting Bech to have a much better performance in year two and am excited to see what he can do.
If he doesn’t progress, hopefully the Raiders can be in a position to get Jeremiah Smith in 2027, or the upcoming wideout class ends up living up to the hype. I guess the real takeaway here is I’m not as down on the outlook at wide receiver as a lot of other people are.
A: I’m sure Mendoza will have some influence because the organization is going to make sure he’s as comfortable as possible to hit the ground running as the franchise QB. But, at the end of the day, the better players are going to make the team and be on the field. So, E.J. Williams and Jonathan Brady have to hold up their end of the bargain and show out during training camp and the preseason.
If it’s a situation where Williams and/or Brady are on the bubble and essentially tied with another receiver for the last roster spot, then familiarity with Mendoza or Mendoza’s opinion could be the deciding factor. However, if receivers like Malik Benson, Chase Roberts or anyone else in the same category are clearly playing better, then the coaching staff owes it to the rest of the locker room to put the best players who can contribute to the team on the roster.
That being said, I do think the Indiana wideouts have a significant competitive advantage in training camp since they already have familiarity and chemistry with Mendoza, especially since he’ll be working with the second team offense to at least begin the summer. Considering everyone else will still be figuring out how to play with each other, having that immediate connection will be really significant.
A: I do like the additions of Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker. However, Dean simply can’t stay healthy, and Walker enters year five still trying to find his footing in the NFL. Also, while Walker has never had a major injury, he has battled through minor ailments throughout his career, missing at least three games in each of the last three seasons.
So, I was a little surprised Spytek didn’t draft a linebacker to potentially serve as the third off-ball linebacker since there’s a good chance that player will have to make a few spot starts given the two former Georgia Bulldogs’ injury histories. From the looks of it, Spytek and the coaching staff seem to be confident that either Tommy Eichenberg or Cody Lindenberg could fill that role.
I liked both of those guys as prospects, so I can’t say I completely disagree with that thought process. But I do think there is some weight to the thought that the Raiders haven’t 100 percent solved their linebacker problem this offseason. If Dean can stay healthy and Walker finally puts it all together, then the defense is set on the second level for the next three years. But there’s a reason why that sentence starts the way it does.
That’ll do it for this week’s mailbag. Thank you all for submitting questions and, as your weekly reminder, if you’d like to have your questions answered in a future column, tweet them at me, @MHolder95, email them to SBPQuestions1@gmail.com or look for our weekly call for questions on the site. The latter will continue to publish on Thursdays.