The Raiders enter the 2026 season hoping to improve everywhere, but no position group on the team needs a bigger bounce back season than the offensive line.
GM John Spytek made some aggressive offseason moves along the offensive line and based on the earliest media reports from OTAs, there could be a surprise position battle brewing at right tackle.
The surprise isn’t that former third-round pick D.J. Glaze is competing for his job, but rather that he’s competing with a rookie who is listed on the Raiders’ website as a guard.
According to reports from OTAs on Wednesday, another third-round pick has entered the mix at right tackle and rookie Trey Zuhn III was taking reps on the right side of the offensive line.
It’s worth pointing out that Sam Warren, who covers the Raiders for The Athletic, wasn’t reporting that Zuhn was taking reps from Glaze, but it’s an important detail that Zuhn is taking reps at all at right tackle.
Zuhn was praised for his versatility coming out of Texas A&M but generally projected to play guard in the NFL level. Zuhn is listed at 6’6 1/2″ on the Raiders’ website and at 312 pounds he has some of the physical tools to be in the mix at tackle.
CBS Sports analyst Mike Renner called Zuhn one of the best value picks in the 2026 draft, noting that Zuhn has handed the highest pass protection grade in college football from Pro Football Focus.
Renner believes Zuhn can play anywhere along the offensive line and will be a good fit in Klint Kubiak’s scheme.
“With the 91st pick, the Las Vegas Raiders select Texas A&M offensive lineman Trey Zuhn. This is an A plus pick. When you get a guy who’s in my top 50 at 91 overall, I’m obviously going to love it,” Renner said this week on Pushing the Pile.
“I love it for a number of reasons. One is that Zuhn is super versatile. He’s played left tackle for the majority of his career, but he’s also played center this past year at Texas A&M. I think he could play guard as well. The second reason, he’s super athletic. I mean, the guy on the move is great. He uses his hands really well. His lateral agility is exactly what he’ll need in Klint Kubiak’s offense. In that running scheme, I think he’s a plug and play starter with how much football he’s played. And if you’re getting a plug and play starter on the offensive line at pick 91, you’re hitting a home run.”
Renner thinks Zuhn will end up starting in his first NFL season, and Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers shared that sentiment this week on his podcast.
“[His versatility] will be perfect for that Klint Kubiak offensive line scheme that they like to run, that outside blocking scheme. That’s what I believe and that’s why I believe he’s going to be a day one starter [and] he’s going to have the ability to step right in,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders podcast last month.
Pete Carroll hasn’t said much since being fired by the Raiders, but he did address the offensive line he was given in 2025…
Two months ago, former head coach Pete Carroll made a rare statement on his time with the Raiders, and it wasn’t a small one.
“We got killed, we got killed,” Carroll said of the Raiders offensive line in 2025. “Our offensive guys up front, from the last couple of years, we got murdered. We needed to upgrade that more than we did. It didn’t happen in the draft, and it didn’t happen in the offseason.”
“We didn’t go for it in the offseason. We needed to buy a new line to give the guys a chance to at least be more competitive. The only reason you get sacked that much is because you try to throw it too much. The whole thing didn’t quite work out and what’s why you saw a change and all that.”
In other news from OTAs, it sounds like the Fernando Mendoza is already more comfortable playing under center…
x: @raidersbeat