It’s been well-documented that the Las Vegas Raiders had arguably the worst offensive line in the NFL last season. Addressing the trenches was one of the front office’s biggest priorities this offseason, adding Tyler Linderbaum to the roster in free agency by making him the highest-paid interior offensive lineman in the league from a dollars per year standpoint, with a three-year, $81 million contract.
That should give the Raiders’ offensive line as a whole a big boost, but it’s only one of five positions on the unit. That begs the question of whether it’s enough to keep up with the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC West?
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1. Broncos
Projected Starters: LT Garett Bolles, LG Ben Powers, C Luke Wattenberg, RG Quinn Meinerz, RT Mike McGlinchey
There’s no debate on which team has the best offensive line in the division heading into the season. Denver’s group ranked first in Pro Football Focus’ pass blocking efficiency rating (89.5) last season, and four out of five starters earned PFF run blocking grades of 74 or better. Seeing as every starter–plus sixth-man Alex Palczeski, who made 10 starts in 2025–returns this season, it’s an easy choice for the topic unit in the AFC West.
Plus, it helps that Bolles and Meinerz were first-team All-Pros a year ago.
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2. Chargers
Projected Starters: LT Rashawn Slater, LG Jake Slaughter (R), C Tyler Biadasz, RG Cole Strange, RT Joe Alt
To be clear, there’s a steep drop-off from the Broncos’ offensive line to the Chargers’.
While Los Angeles’ line was bad last year, a lot of that is tied to losing Rashawn Slater to a season-ending injury in training camp and Joe Alt playing in just six games. There aren’t many teams that can survive missing both starting offensive tackles for more than half the season, and the injuries forced Jim Harbaugh and Co. to shuffle up the trenches.
Los Angeles heads into 2026 with Slater and Alt expected to return, and three new starters at the interior spots. Biadasz is undoubtedly an upgrade over Bradley Bozeman, with the former Washington Commander posting a 70.7 PFF grade last season compared to the latter’s 51.5. The two guard spots are very much in question, though, bringing the Chargers’ o-line down a peg heading into the fall.
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3. Chiefs
Projected Starters: LT Josh Simmons, LG Kingsley Suamataia, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Jaylon Moore
It wasn’t easy picking between Los Angeles and Kansas City. Primarily because Humphrey is the best center in the league, and Smith is very good at his position, too. However, the difference is that the Chiefs have big question marks at offensive tackle.
Simmons was good in pass-protection as a rookie, but that was on a small sample size of just seven games, and he had issues as a run blocker. On the right side, Moore is expected to replace Jawaan Taylor, which could be an addition by subtraction. However, Moore has primarily been a backup throughout his career, making just eight starts in five seasons. On top of that, Suamataia showed significant improvement in his second season at guard, but a 64.9 PFF grade is nothing to hang your hat on.
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In other words, outside of the two studs, the Chiefs have a lot of question marks in the trenches heading into the season.
4. Raiders
Projected Starters: LT Kolton Miller, LG Spencer Burford, C Tyler Linderbaum, RG Jackson Powers-Johnson, RT DJ Glaze
What’s killing the Raiders’ ranking heading into the season is that Miller and Linderbaum are the only proven linemen, and the other three jobs are up for grabs in training camp. Burford, Powers-Johnson and Glaze all could easily be swapped out with Caleb Rogers, Jordan Meredith, Trey Zuhn III or Charles Grant by the time Week 1 rolls around.
Also, outside of Burford, there isn’t much starting experience among the five contenders. Plus, 29 of the former San Francisco 49er’s 38 career starts came during his first and second NFL seasons before he was moved to backup duties in 2024 and 2025. His other nine starts all came last year and were due to Ben Bartch and Connor Colby suffering injuries.
With so much ambiguity and how last season played out, it’s hard to move the Silver and Black up the list at this stage.
