It’s only June, but it seems like the Raiders are Jackson Powers-Johnson are traveling down a familiar road as they move toward the start of the 2026 season.
While Powers-Johnson’s stock seems to be more and more unsteady, Trey Zuhn and Caleb Rogers continue to receive praise from those covering the team during offseason activities.
“I think Trey Zuhn eventually is going to find his way onto the field, whether it’s this year or next year, and I wouldn’t rule out him being the left guard of the future,” the California Post’s Vinny Bonsignore said on Raider Nation Radio’s Morning Tailgate last week.
“But for right now, it feels like Spencer Burford’s going to be the guy there, and that leaves the right guard job really open for a fight.”
From the outside if seems like Powers-Johnson is trending toward becoming the odd man out for the second consecutive season, and Bonsignore shared what someone with the organization told him about the third-year interior lineman.
“I think there is a lot of appreciation for Caleb Rogers and I think that Jackson Powers-Johnson remains somebody that they are hopeful for, but I just get the sense that there’s a little bit, I don’t know if it’s misgivings, but the quote I got from somebody in the building was, ‘It’s just hit and miss. It continues to be hit and miss with him.'”
Consistency has been an issue for Powers-Johnson since the Raiders drafted him in 2024, and the thinking for the past nine months or so has been that he simply wasn’t a good fit with Pete Carroll’s coaching staff.
But there is a chance Powers-Johnson is having the same effect on the new coaching staff in Las Vegas.
Former Raider wide receiver Ryan Hoag said last week he doesn’t think Powers-Johnson will start a game this year and there could be a personality dynamic that isn’t blending well with Klint Kubiak’s staff.
“I will say that just the relationship, it seems like Jackson Powers-Johnson has with the coaching staff, just from my observation of one practice, it seems a little unsettled,” Hoag said on the Silver & Black Sports Podcast.
“I don’t know if it’s because Jackson’s always like the rah-rah hype guy, you know, I’m first to do a radio interview or whatever, but it just seems like that type of like mentality with the team, at least this coaching staff, is just like, ‘No, we’re not going for that.’”
It will be a little more than a month before Powers-Johnson and his teammates kick off training camp, and that’s when we’ll start learning what the coaching staff really thinks of the former second-round pick.
There’s no question JPJ has the skillset to be an above average player in the league, so it will be interesting to see if he can make the necessary adjustments (whatever those might be) to start being talked about like a potential Pro Bowl lineman again.
x: @raidersbeat
Then we are still stupid. You trade the guy when he has peak value. Spencer Buford isn’t good player. It’s all my guy crap. Regardless they need to trade him. Especially a team that could use a center. Call up Dallas or one of Telesco’s old buddies.