On athletic profile alone, Charles Grant is an ideal schematic for for Rick Dennison’s Las Vegas Raiders offensive line.
The wide-zone system that the crafty veteran offensive line coach is installing in the desert requires agile, light-footed, and horizontally mobile linemen. Grant, the Silver & Black’s third-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft (99th overall) out of small-school William & Mary, is a match with his agility, ability to move at 304 pounds, showcasing the requisite lateral quickness and burst to shine in the zone blocking system.
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Like Dennison, Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak is a huge proponent of the zone scheme that requires Las Vegas’ offensive linemen to move horizontally, reach defenders on the perimeter, and seal lanes to let ball carriers do their work.
Yet, athleticism alone will only get Grant so far in Year 2. While he does possess the ideal traits at 6-foot-4 and 304 pounds, the 24-year-old very much remains a developmental mid-round pick — especially coming from an FCS competition-level institution, accolades and all.
That said, Grant is one of the pure blindside protectors on the Raiders roster outside of steadfast Kolton Miller. Out of the 50 games Grant played at William & Mary, he notched 41 starts at left tackle and was a stalwart linemen out on an island. And that’s where the bar is for Grant in his second season: Continue to develop as a backup and potentially starter down the road — or in the near future if Miller goes down again in 2026.
According to Kubiak, Miller arrived to offseason activities with a clean bill of health and the veteran left tackle’s presence has been night and day compared to a slog of a 2025 campaign — one that saw the 30-year-old land on injured reserve with an ankle injury suffered in Week 4 against the Chicago Bears. And it was in that offseason where Las Vegas extended Miller’s contract to the tune of three years, $66 million, which keeps the 2018 first round pick (15th overall) with the Raiders through 2028 and age 33 (if the contract sees its duration).
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While the four games he played in and started in 2025 wasn’t ideal, Miller did play and start all 17 games in 2024, and his continued presence at left tackle is integral to Dennison’s and Kubiak’s Year 1 success. Miller has operated in a similar scheme during his Raiders career (when Tom Cable was the offensive line boss and another disciple of the Alex Gibbs’ zone blocking tree) and despite being 6-foot-8 and 326 pounds, has athleticism normally reserved for smaller linemen.
Miller’s active presence also provides Grant an excellent example to follow as Miller started 111 of the 113 games he’s played in his eight seasons in Silver & Black and experienced the pitfalls and peaks during his tenure. Unlike a slapstick 2025 season where Grant was stymied by both incompetent coaching (Brennan Carroll was the offensive line boss under his father and former head coach Pete Carroll) and decision-making (veteran Stone Forsythe was elevated to starting left tackle), 2026 should — emphasis should — be much more productive from a development and learning perspective.
As noted above, Grant has the skillset and matching both the athletic ability with the mental aspect of manning the blindside on the Raiders offensive line is going to be mission critical in his second season.
Grant brings the desired ability to get out in space and reach the edges to seal off defenders and his ability to climb to the second level to engage with linebackers is a fundamental requirement in the scheme being installed by the Raiders coaching staff. Grant also displays glimpses of selling run-blocking assignments before transitioning back to pass-protection sets making him a sound when play-action is deployed.
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Making that consistent amongst continued growth in the weight room to add even more grip and power (he does have a background as a wrestler) will do well for Grant.
While left tackle seems to be his destined position grouping and likely as a swing tackle who can play both on blindside and right side, becoming more versatile maximizes Grant’s roster chances.
Both Dennison and Kubiak are big believers in cross-training offensive linemen to ensure there’s both quality competition and depth created by being able to play more than one position up front.
Las Vegas is seeing this occur in real time at OTAs with 2026 third-round pick Trey Zuhn III (91st overall) is getting offseason reps at both tackle and guard, after showcasing the ability to line up every where on Texas A&M’s offensive line during his collegiate career.
While it’s difficult to see Grant supplanting Miller this season, it’d be wise for the Raiders coaching staff and Grant to remain both mentally and physically prepped to step up at any moment as injuries come in a flash across the entire offensive line grouping.
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The cross-training this offseason will certainly help with that.
But live, in-game reps are hard to duplicate. And if Grant can continue to stack days, learn, and develop, give both Dennison and Kubiak the luxury of deploying him as a jumbo tight end potentially to earn valuable in-game snaps, something that didn’t arrive more enough in his rookie season under the previous coaching staff (nine games played, one start, 59 snaps on offense).
