The Raiders’ offensive line was one of the worst in the NFL in 2025, but there is reason for optimism going into 2026.
The consensus seems to be that injuries and the coaching staff were largely to blame for the Raiders’ struggle in the offensive trenches a year ago, and there’s no question the talent level along the offensive line improved in the offseason.
With training camp and preseason around the corner, it will be interesting to see how the depth chart shakes out in the weeks ahead, and according to Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers, the talk right now is that the biggest competition is going to happen at right guard.
“D.J. Glaze is going to have his work cut out for him. I do believe there’s some competition behind him, but it feels like talking to some people, really, maybe the biggest competition when it comes to the offensive line may just come down to the right guard spot. And that’s a JPJ, Caleb Rogers type conversation,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders podcast on Monday.
“Those two guys could be fighting for those positions. You know, maybe the left guard spot is open, Trey Zuhn or Spencer Burford. But you know, not 100 percent sure. From everything that I’ve been heard and been told is that Spencer Burford, they like a lot coming over as a free agent from the 49ers.”
For what it’s worth, Myers’ message on the Raiders’ O-line was similar to what the California Post’s Vinny Bonsignore said a week ago.
“There’s a lot of belief and feeling that a lot of what happened last year on the offensive line, I’m not going to say it was all coaching, but… this is up until recently, just a couple of days ago, about how putting the tape on and watching the offensive line last year, and befuddled, pissed off, amazed at how dysfunctional it was,” Bonsignore said on Raider Nation Radio’s Morning Tailgate.
“Not from necessarily a talent standpoint, of course when Forsythe is in there, as opposed to Kolton Miller, there’s a big drop off. We will agree on that. He did what he could, Stone did. He was just a limited football player. There was a talent issue there. But by and large, when your top guys were in there and it wasn’t deemed a talent issue, it was deemed that guys were just not even on the same page.”
Myers mentioned Glaze as a player that has his work cut out for him, but Bonsignore said the third year right tackle has a good amount of support in the Raiders’ building.
“You had D.J. Glaze, who there’s a lot of admiration for in the building, doing his thing, and it might look like he got beat, but it wasn’t because he got beat, it was because other guys weren’t doing their job the way they should have, because they didn’t even look like they knew what they were supposed to be doing, and at some point you have to put that on coaching,” Bonsignore said.
“There’s a real feeling inside the building where the coaching is so at such a higher level that that’s going to be less of a problem. There’s going to be a lot of cohesion, a lot of chemistry, a lot of players that are working together in unison on that offensive line. It’s going to make all the difference in the world.”
x: @raidersbeat