What will the Raiders’ offense look like under Klint Kubiak in 2026?
The hope is that Kubiak’s offense will look something like what the Seattle Seahawks were able to do on offense a year ago, but former Raider great Lincoln Kennedy named two other teams that run concepts similar to what he expects from Kubiak.
“I envision seeing a lot of things similar to what we see out of the Bills’ offense [and] similar to what we see out of the Rams’ offense,” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast.
“With a wide zone run concept, working play action out of that way, having your speed receiver or your speedy tied in, run a deep angle route, you’ve got a drag route, you’ve got a flat route, you’ve got everything to back side boots, opening up the opportunity to be able to have a good run game.”
In order for the Raiders to have success of any kind on offense, they’re going to have to fix a running game that was one of the least effective rushing attacks in the league in 2025.
“If nobody respects your run game, it doesn’t matter what play action you run, it’s not going to work,” Kennedy continued.
“So I see a lot of [similar] concepts happening with this offense. Even with what San Francisco’s done over the past couple years.
They get everybody moving left and they got a quarterback move coming out right. You’ve got either Christian McCaffrey slipping into the flat, you’ve got a short drag, you’ve got an angle route. All these concepts are possible with the guys that we’re talking about on this offensive side of the ball. But you got to have an invested run game. You got to have an offensive line…”
If the Raiders can’t run the ball in 2026, it won’t be from a lack of investment.
Last year, the Raiders drafted arguably the best running back prospects to enter the draft since Saquon Barkley, and with the additions of Tyler Linderbaum and a handful of mid-round picks to the offense line, the pieces should be in place to finally jumpstart the running game.
It’s still early in the process of settling on an offensive line, but the initial O-line group shown to the media at OTAs was Kolton Miller, Spencer Burford, Tyler Linderbaum, Jackson Powers-Johnson and D.J. Glaze.
And for his part, it doesn’t sound like Ashton Jeanty is going to be sharing a lot of carries in 2026, despite Kubiak’s tendency to deploy two-back systems in the past.
x: @raidersbeat