Raiders Have a Major Challenge to Work through as they Evaluate for 2026

Whether they will admit it or not, the Raiders are looking ahead to next year, and the majority of the decisions going forward will be with an eye towards building the best team possible in 2026.

That was the thinking behind the decision to trade Jakobi Meyers and will continue to be the thinking as we see the Raiders lean more on their younger players in the second half of the season.

Over the course of the next eight weeks, the decision makers in the Raiders’ building want to learn as much about their 2026 team as possible.

But there will be one major detail complicating those efforts.

Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers talked about that detail on Tuesday, and it comes down to a depleted offensive line sabotaging what the team is trying to do on offense.

“This is another version of this offensive line that we’re going to see… [and] that’s a recipe for disaster. As we’ve been talking about evaluation season, how do you get a proper evaluation of Geno Smith? How do you get a proper evaluation of Kenny Pickett if they go in that direction?” Myers asked on the Locked on Raiders podcast on Tuesday.

“How do you get a proper evaluation of Aiden O’Connell if they go in that direction? When you have a compromised offensive line. It’s really difficult. And how do you even get a good evaluation of Chip Kelly when you have that compromised offensive line and everything you do is the offensive line is compromised; it’s not in the position it’s supposed to be. They’re not blocking for Geno. Every time he snaps the ball, he’s looking down at his protection,” Myers continued.

“[Geno] doesn’t trust them. And it’s hard to trust them when he’s been sacked as many times as he has, and he’s got the pressure immediately… It’s just very hard at this stage of the game. When we’re talking about evaluation season, how do you properly evaluate if you don’t have your guys up front?”

Beyond the evaluation process, the more immediate challenge for the Raiders’ coaching staff will be figuring out a way to roll out a competent offense behind an offensive line that might be the worst, or at least the most unproven, in the league.

For Kelly, who some believe is coaching for his job in 2026, the second half of the season has all the ingredients in place to be a disaster.

As bad as the offensive line was prior to Kolton Miller and Jackson Powers-Johnson getting hurt, how much of an abject disaster is it capable of being now?

x: @raidersbeat

Who’s got next? Las Vegas Raiders Offensive Line suffers another big blow

The Raiders take another one on the chin after finding out the severity of the injury to Jackson Powers-Johnson and how long it could keep him sidelined for. We will go inside the Raiders locker room and hear from a guy who may be in line to replace JPJ at least in the short term.