The performance of the offensive line this coming season will dictate much off the success (or lack thereof) the Las Vegas Raiders have in Klint Kubiak’s initial season as an NFL head coach.
It’s a starting five where the other skill positions on Kubiak’s offense relies on them being quality and getting the job done. During the miserable 2025 campaign, the group was lackluster — and that’s putting it nicely. And I don’t believe I’m going out on a limb when I say: Kubiak’s choice of offensive line boss, Rick Dennison, should be a head-and-shoulders better coach than the one who coached the trenches last season.
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With over 30 years of experience — included 10 specifically coaching an offensive line or coordinating a run game — Dennison has the task of getting the Silver & Black offensive line back on track. And this includes identifying the starting guards.
Which brings me to another point, that won’t be controversial: The arrival of free-agent prize Tyler Linderbaum locks up the center position, meaning the ambiguity at the pivot is crystal clear, now. There shouldn’t be any puzzling competition between Jordan Meredith and Jackson Powers-Johnson. Linderbaum is the pivot leaving both Meredith and Powers-Johnson competing for snaps at left and right guard and, perhaps, backup center.
But let’s focus on Powers-Johnson — the Raiders second-round pick (44th overall) in the 2024 NFL Draft. The 6-foot-3 and 325-pound Oregon product is listed as a center/guard on the team’s official website, but I highly doubt he is or will push Linderbaum from the starting center gig. Thus, one of the guard spots is Powers-Johnson’s route to be in the starting lineup.
Before we jump into where Powers-Johnson fits best on the Raiders’ offensive line, take a listen to Hondo Carpenter below. A half-glass-full-type on the beat, he has a candid interesting take on the Raiders’ third-year lineman:
Being undisciplined and hot headed as Carpenter noted is the antithesis of the Raiders team Kubiak is helming. Discipline is a core tenet and we’ve seen that very early in the new head coach’s tenure in Las Vegas by the players having to earn their decal shield on helmets. It’s a team-first mentality where entitlement has no business in the Silver & Black and where success and respect are collective and requires the entire roster to commit.
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Strictly looking at the offensive line, Kubiak’s penchant to run different plays out of identical formations and looks demands every player execute their specific assignments so the defense can’t anticipate whether it’s a run or pass.
Then there’s the area blocking which is vital to the offense.
The outside wide-zone run requires all five offensive lineman to be in synch and moving laterally in unison. The group must block moving horizontally rather than one-on-one matchups. The discipline that requires to not only know what you’re doing, but trust the man next to you to do their job is intense. And for Powers-Johnson to truly cement himself as one of the five starters up front, he must adjust by becoming disciplined and channeling the hot-headed nature into productive anger (we’ll specifically get to this later on in this piece).
That all said, the two interior spots on the Raiders offensive line — left and right guard — are the most wide open on the front five in terms of competition. As our Tristen Kuhn explored earlier this month, Las Vegas has five options at the two guard spots and determining the best starting group likely extends deep into training camp.
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As the Raiders are in a hiatus until training camp in mid-July (July 23 for rookies, July 28 for veterans), Powers-Johnson enters that as a frontrunner for right guard starting gig. And that’s a position that suits the 23-year-old’s skill set as that particular guard is traditionally more tailored to “power” types. In a zone scheme, the right guard doesn’t tend to be a power archetype but instead an athletic and nimble type that can get to the perimeter, seal, and then advance to the next-level defender. While Kubiak is a zone blocking scheme truther (thanks in large part to his dad Gary Kubiak and mentor Kyle Shanahan deploying the system), he’s not obtuse and both incorporated and deployed power elements as Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator during the team’s Super Bowl-winning run this past season.
While his physical profile makes him better suited for power-blocking or gap schemes, Powers-Johnson is no stranger to zone concepts as the Oregon Ducks ran a mixed playbook that featured zone and power concepts. And zone was the primary element of the Raiders blocking scheme during Powers-Johnson’s initial two season in the league.
Although the third-year interior lineman doesn’t have the elite burst that zone-specific linemen tend to boast, Powers-Johnson brings the lateral agility required to thrive on zone blocks. He also brings football intelligence to the mix and combine that with his bulkier frame and brute force, and the Raiders can stand to use another people mover on the offensive line alongside Linderbaum. Standing 6-foot-2 and 305 pounds, the 26-year-old free agent get solidifies the center position by bringing ideal functional strength, lower-body leverage, and explosive athleticism to the table.
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Linderbaum’s mix of high football IQ, power, and speed was a must-have when the Raiders began rebuilding the team and the team needs every bit of getting everyone on the same page, ability to literally move defenders out of the way, and athleticism to move both horizontally and vertically to reach the second level for continued run blocking. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Dennison and Kubiak will use Linderbaum as the litmus test for evaluating the best five to start on the offensive line. Those that are plodding and lingering behind the level of effort Linderbaum provides won’t be part of the regular season roster, perhaps.
Which brings us back to JPJ.
Displaying more discipline and converting the hot-headed nature into productive energy to take out on opposing defenders will help bring another brute-force element to the Raiders trenches alongside Linderbaum. Especially since veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins appears on track to be the starter in Week 1. He’s a pure pocket passer who operates with the mindset of his arm beating the opposition as he rarely uses his legs to move the chains. Thus powerful presences in pass blocking are as important as athletic and nimble traits in the run game.
A sustained clean bill of health also goes a long way for Powers-Johnson. He played in 100-percent of the offensive snaps at right guard for the 2025 Raiders in five of the eight games he played. Suffering a severe ankle injury in a Week 10 loss to the Denver Broncos, Powers-Johnson missed the rest of the season playing only eight of the 17 games.
