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: To be honest, I don’t think there is much Kirk Cousins can do to quiet the calls for Fernando Mendoza to start. Especially if Mendoza plays well in the preseason, even if that comes against backups, fans are going to want to see him on the field in the regular season. I get that. He was the No. 1 pick and is tabbed as the “future of the franchise”, so people want to see what he’s got sooner rather than later.
Cousins will have to play like prime Peyton Manning, while the Raiders come out of the gates hot and are winning for people not to want Mendoza to start. That’s hyperbolic, but I think you get the overall point I’m trying to make here.
Personally, I’m not expecting much from Cousins. He played solidly down the stretch and the Falcons were better with him at quarterback than Michael Penix Jr. last season. But the guy turns 38 in August and hasn’t looked like the Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback he was before tearing an Achilles in 2023. Being old and injured is a tough combination to overcome, and that’s what cost him the job in Atlanta.
That being said, Cousins’ play on the field is probably the third most important responsibility on the team this year, in my opinion. First is being Mendoza’s mentor and making sure he’s set up for success in the NFL, especially when it comes to the mental and preparation aspects of playing quarterback in the league. The second is being a veteran voice/leader in a young locker room.
To me, that’s how the 14-year pro will make a lasting impact on the Raiders, and anything positive he brings as an actual player is a bonus.
Q: Is Mike Washington not just a faster Zamir White? I have a feeling we’re gonna hate watching him run in zone.
A: In full disclosure, this question was asked after the draft, and I didn’t have time to get to it then, so I bookmarked it and forgot about it until earlier this week. Whoops, and apologies for my very delayed response.
Washington is definitely better as a downhill runner, but he has much better vision than White does. I really like the way Washington sets up blocks, and he had a few good reads on outside zone runs with Arkansas last year. Don’t get me wrong, he has room for improvement on zone concepts and will probably always be a committee type of back, but I’m pretty excited to see what he can bring to the offense as a homerun-hitter out of the backfield.
If you’re looking for some reasons to buy stock in the fourth-round pick, dive into my film breakdown on him below.
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: In a game of inches, an inch is significant! For context, Zuhn’s arm length is in the 19th percentile for an offensive lineman (the position group as a whole, not just tackles), and Proctor’s is in the 44th percentile, according to MockDraftable.
So, both guys have below-average length for NFL standards, but the former would be an even bigger outlier than the latter. Mockdraftable lists a little over 34 inches as the mean arm length for an NFL offensive tackle, and Procter is in the 23rd percentile for the position, while the site doesn’t even offer an OT comparison for Zuhn.
The issue with shorter arms in pass protection is that the margin for error reduces with a lack of length, especially on the edge. Tackles have to operate in space more than the interior linemen, and the goal in pass pro is to make the first significant contact against the pass-rusher, and the guy who has longer arms between the two will have the advantage. It’s like boxing or UFC fighting in that regard.
Also part of Zuhn’s problem is that he has a below-average wingspan for a tackle, coming in just under 81 inches (per The Athletic’s Dane Brugler) when the mean is a little more than 82 inches. To be fair, that’s kind of the same issue because his arm length is tied to his wingspan, but I bring that up because it creates shorter edges for pass-rushers on top of the reach issue mentioned above.
So, Zuhn is going to have to be on time and precise with his hands, on top of having the lateral movement skills to stay in front of pass-rushers and protect the edges. He did all of that pretty well in college, but it’s a whole different ball game in the pros, where the smallest disadvantage can get exposed.
To me, the bigger issue with the Texas A&M product is something I think you’re downplaying: the running game.
As good as Zuhn was as a pass-protector last year, he ranked 22nd among SEC offensive tackles with a below-average 58.4 run blocking grade from Pro Football Focus. He struggles to move defensive linemen and create rushing lanes, and I don’t see that all of a sudden getting better at the next level. That’s a big part of the difference between him and Proctor, who ranked fourth with an 81.1 mark.
In other words, Zuhn is an offensive lineman who doesn’t have the ideal length to protect the edge in the NFL and isn’t a good run blocker. That brings up the question of: where do you play him? And that’s how he ends up sliding in the draft. With Proctor, a team is at least thinking they’re going to get a good guard out of him if he can’t hang at tackle. That being said, I would agree with the point that Proctor was overdrafted and has a better future on the interior.
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.
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