The Raiders have spent the offseason building something that looks promising on paper. Training camp is where that paper gets tested.
Las Vegas enters camp with a clear plan from new shotcaller Klint Kubiak: Kirk Cousins will open the 2026 season as the starting quarterback, with rookie Fernando Mendoza behind him. That’s the blueprint. The problem is that blueprints don’t survive contact with the field for long, and the Raiders are about to find out whether their plan can hold up once the reps start piling up.
At quarterback, the tension is obvious. Cousins is still a capable veteran, but he’s also deep into his 30s, and his recent tape has drawn scrutiny.
Mendoza, meanwhile, brings the kind of physical upside that can turn heads fast. If the rookie starts stacking better practices and sharper moments once camp begins, Las Vegas may be forced into a decision that has less to do with patience and more to do with backbone.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio made that point on a recent episode, saying a modern locker room won’t accept a coach starting the “lesser guy” simply to preserve a long-term grooming plan. That matters in a room with players like Maxx Crosby and Brock Bowers, because belief in the staff won’t come from speeches. It’ll come from whether the Raiders actually reward what shows up on the field.
That’s the danger for Kubiak before he’s even coached a regular-season game. If he ignores what the tape and the practice field are telling him, the message is that competition is just window dressing. If he lets the battle play out honestly, without manufacturing drama, the roster learns something valuable about how this staff intends to operate.
The same standard applies on defense, where the Raiders have another unsettled competition at defensive tackle. Jonah Laulu and Tonka Hemingway are fighting for a starting role, and neither enters camp with clean hands.
Both struggled against the run last season. Pro Football Focus graded Laulu at 34.4 in that area, while Hemingway came in at 29.7.
Hemingway at least brings some pass-rush ability to balance out the problem. Laulu hasn’t shown that same kind of counter yet.
So the job may go to the lineman who can survive against the run without giving up the disruptive edge Hemingway already has. That’s the kind of camp battle that can tell you a lot, because there isn’t a locked-in answer waiting at the end of it.
The larger point for this rebuild is simple: the Raiders can’t treat every player as if they’re starting from the same place. Kubiak has assembled a staff built around development, a real departure from Pete Carroll’s win-now approach on a roster that wasn’t built for that mindset. But development only works if it has standards.
Some young players have already given the Raiders something to build on. Tackle Charles Grant and receiver Jack Bech have shown traits worth investing in, including real physical tools, usable skill, and room to grow in this scheme. Others, including interior lineman Will Putnam and cornerback Decamerion Richardson, got opportunities and didn’t do much with them.
That doesn’t mean the Raiders should start slashing and burning just to prove a point. Dont’e Thornton Jr. had a rough rookie season, but his size and speed are still hard to find, and he remains worth developing. And the move toward a bigger, more physical nickel corner under defensive coordinator Rob Leonard - a shift that could push out someone like Greedy Vance - looks more like a scheme adjustment than a verdict on one player.
Las Vegas doesn’t need every answer right now. It needs the nerve to let camp sort them out.
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The Raiders went into free agency thinking about the future at linebacker, adding Quay Walker and Nakobe Dean with an eye on them as starters in 2026. But in the meantime, a different name has started to matter in a hurry. Cody Lindenberg, a seventh-round pick, has been getting real work with the first group during OTAs and into training camp, and part of the reason is simple enough: Deans absence opened the door.
Lindenberg has helped himself by doing the unglamorous stuff well, especially on special teams, and defensive coordinator Rob Leonard has liked what he has seen from the rookies intelligence and leadership. In a room that was supposed to be about long-term planning, the Raiders may have stumbled into a useful insurance option, with Lindenberg looking like the kind of player who can step in if the depth chart gets tested. [Read more 🡒]
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For a team trying to reset its direction, that kind of pressure is part of the deal, especially when the division keeps loading up around it. Mendozas path will be watched as closely as the other headline rookies in the AFC West, from Mansoor Delane in Kansas City to Jonah Coleman in Denver and Jake Slaughter in Los Angeles, because the Raiders hopes may hinge on whether their new quarterback can take command quickly enough to matter in Year 1. [Read more 🡒]