The Las Vegas Raiders desperately needed to address its offensive line in the offseason after it ranked dead-last in the NFL last season.
The Las Vegas Raiders were expected to spend much of its salary cap space on beefing up the offensive line and it did just that.
The Raiders kicked off free agency by signing the top free agent center available, former Baltimore Ravens C Tyler Linderbaum, to a massive three-year, $81 million contract to make him the highest-paid center of all time at $27 million average annual value ($9 million more than the previous highest-paid center, the Kansas City Chiefs’ Creed Humphrey).
Adding one of the best centers in the National Football League is a great way of ensuring the offensive line doesn’t rank dead-last again. It will also aid in scoring more than 14 points per game, the lowest mark of any team in 2025 by two points.
While Las Vegas’ unit was the worst according to Pro Football Focus (PFF), left tackle Kolton Miller was excellent when healthy and had an 86.5 overall grade before his season was cut short after just four games.
At the NFL league meeting on Tuesday, ESPN’s Ryan McFadden heard that the Raiders are content with its offensive tackle depth but did kick the tires on different options in free agency. General Manager John Spytek opted to trust the new coaching staff and let them do their jobs with who is already in the building.
But that doesn’t mean GM Spytek and the organization won’t draft an offensive tackle during the draft later this month.
“…Spytek didn't rule out the possibility of taking an offensive tackle with one of the 10 picks the team has in the draft,” McFadden wrote Tuesday.
“You're not typically signing a guy that you're just going to plug in and play [offensive] tackle,” Spytek said. “It's really challenging to do, and that's why you [have] to draft those guys and develop them and then re-sign them.”
Drafting a “project” to develop and take over when the time is right works when you have the right coaches. Las Vegas spent a lot of time and resources to ensure its coaching staff, led by head coach Klint Kubiak, is filled with people that fit that bill. O-line coach Rick Dennison is one of the best and most respected in the business, hence why Spytek trusts him to do get the most out of Miller, DJ Glaze and Charles Grant.
The Raiders still have to fill in some gaps, but Miller, Linderbaum and guard Jackson Powers-Johnson are locked into the starting lineup. Kubiak is hopeful that Glaze will have a much better season than the one he had a year ago.
“Raiders coach Klint Kubiak is optimistic that Glaze can reach another level despite struggling in 2025,” wrote McFadden. “He gave up a team-high 70 pressures and 16 sacks.”
The goal is to protect future Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the presumed No. 1 pick in the draft, and the organization can’t have its right tackle allowing 70 pressures and 16 sacks.