Silver And Black Pride
The performance of the offensive line this coming season will dictate much off the success (or lack thereof) the Las Vegas Raiders have in Klint Kubiak’s initial season as an NFL head coach.
It’s a starting five where the other skill positions on Kubiak’s offense relies on them being quality and getting the job done. During the miserable 2025 campaign, the group was lackluster — and that’s putting it nicely. And I don’t believe I’m going out on a limb when I say: Kubiak’s choice of offensive line boss, Rick Dennison, should be a head-and-shoulders better coach than the one who coached the trenches last season.
With over 30 years of experience — included 10 specifically coaching an offensive line or coordinating a run game — Dennison has the task of getting the Silver & Black offensive line back on track. And this includes identifying the starting guards.
Which brings me to another point, that won’t be controversial: The arrival of free-agent prize Tyler Linderbaum locks up the center position, meaning the ambiguity at the pivot is crystal clear, now. There shouldn’t be any puzzling competition between Jordan Meredith and Jackson Powers-Johnson. Linderbaum is the pivot leaving both Meredith and Powers-Johnson competing for snaps at left and right guard and, perhaps, backup center.
But let’s focus on Powers-Johnson — the Raiders second-round pick (44th overall) in the 2024 NFL Draft. The 6-foot-3 and 325-pound Oregon product is listed as a center/guard on the team’s official website, but I highly doubt he is or will push Linderbaum from the starting center gig. Thus, one of the guard spots is Powers-Johnson’s route to be in the starting lineup.
Before we jump into where Powers-Johnson fits best on the Raiders’ offensive line, take a listen to Hondo Carpenter below. A half-glass-full-type on the beat, he has a candid interesting take on the Raiders’ third-year lineman:
Being undisciplined and hot headed as Carpenter noted is the antithesis of the Raiders team Kubiak is helming. Discipline is a core tenet and we’ve seen that very early in the new head coach’s tenure in Las Vegas by the players having to earn their decal shield on helmets. It’s a team-first mentality where entitlement has no business in the Silver & Black and where success and respect are collective and requires the entire roster to commit.
Strictly looking at the offensive line, Kubiak’s penchant to run different plays out of identical formations and looks demands every player execute their specific assignments so the defense can’t anticipate whether it’s a run or pass.
Then there’s the area blocking which is vital to the offense.
The outside wide-zone run requires all five offensive lineman to be in synch and moving laterally in unison. The group must block moving horizontally rather than one-on-one matchups. The discipline that requires to not only know what you’re doing, but trust the man next to you to do their job is intense. And for Powers-Johnson to truly cement himself as one of the five...
