With NFL free agency officially beginning on Monday, plenty of Maxx Crosby trade rumors, the Las Vegas Raiders finalizing their coaching staff and making a few tweaks to the roster, we have a lot to go over for this week’s mailbag.
As a side note, I tried to keep the focus here on free agency/the current roster as much as possible. So if you asked a draft question, I’m not ignoring you and stashed your question for next week or the week after.
With that out of the way, let’s get to it!
A: I’ve touched
on this a bunch during the offseason and completely agree with you about the offensive line. It wouldn’t surprise me if John Spytek goes after two starters in the trenches during free agency: a right tackle and an interior offensive lineman. I’d like to see them open up the checkbook for guys like Braden Smith from the Indianapolis Colts and Tyler Linderbaum from the Baltimore Ravens to fill those voids.
After that, I think the next position the Raiders will be aggressive at is wide receiver, with Alec Pierce of the Colts being the top target. Pierce’s game is similar to Indiana wide receiver Charlie Becker’s (I promise, I’m not profiling them…), in that they’re both vertical and back-shoulder threats. Becker and Fernando Mendoza had a lot of success together last season, obviously, meaning it’s easy to see why the veteran wideout and Mendoza would be a good fit together.
Granted, with George Pickens getting franchise tagged, Pierce seems to be the consensus top receiver to hit the open market, so he should have plenty of suitors next week. It wouldn’t surprise me if Spytek pivots toward someone like former Seattle Seahawk/New Orleans Saint Rashid Shaheed (especially with the Klint Kubiak connection) or former Green Bay Packer Romeo Doubs as plans B and C.
I hear you on the edge rushers, too, especially after Crosby was traded, and there are a handful of good options in free agency. It would also make sense for the Raiders to go after an off-ball linebacker, since the roster could use a couple of them, and there will be a few good, young talents on the open market.
As far as overspending goes, Las Vegas is going to have to do that to lure just about any free agent this offseason. The club was the worst team in the league last year, and everyone knows they’re rebuilding. So, it’s not like the front office can use immediate success or a chance at a Super Bowl run next year as part of its pitch. The Silver and Black is going to have to do a lot of talking with its wallet if the organization wants to be successful in free agency this year.
Q: If the Raiders miss out on Tyler Linderbaum, Connor McGovern and Luke Fortner, do you see them re-signing Dylan Parham and playing him at center?
A: I’m not going to lie, seeing Fortner grouped in with the first two caught me off guard. LOL! He’s more of a depth option, in my opinion.
But to answer the question, re-signing Parham to a short-term deal could be on the table if Las Vegas strikes out on landing a top interior offensive lineman. That said, I think Parham will have a few suitors on the open market, so the Raiders would have to make that call somewhat quickly, and he may receive a better contract offer. Also, Jackson Powers-Johnson would likely move to center in that scenario, assuming Jordan Merdith isn’t retained as a restricted free agent. And if Meredith gets brought back, he’d be the favorite at the pivot.
Q: Which SCBs should the Raiders target in free agency and the draft?
A: I touched on a few free agent nickelback options in the article below, so take a peek at that for a few names to keep tabs on. I’ve been a big fan of Roger McCreary’s game since he was coming out of Auburn in the 2022 draft, so I’d be pretty excited if he signs next week.
Coincidentally, as I’m writing this, the Buffalo Bills released slot cornerback Taron Johnson (shoutout Sheldon High School), who is another option but not named in the article below. Johnson was a second-team All-Pro just two seasons ago.
Again, I’m trying to keep this week’s mailbag focused on free agency and will touch on the draft more over the next month. But, to give you a few prospects: Indiana’s D’Angelo Ponds, Duke’s Chandler Rivers and South Carolina’s Jalon Kilgore.
Q: Considering the Lions/Texans David Montgomery trade for a fourth-round pick and offensive tackle, whom I know nothing about, do you think Detroit would have given up DJ Glaze for Montgomery straight up (or even with a pick thrown in), and would you have been in favor of that trade? If so, was Spytek asleep at the wheel again?
A: You’re crossing up the trades here a bit. Houston sent offensive tackle Tytus Howard to Cleveland, and guard/center Juice Scruggs is the one going to Detroit. The Lions were looking for an interior lineman after moving on from Graham Glasgow, their starting center last year, earlier in the week.
Granted, Detroit could use a tackle after Friday’s announcement that Taylor Decker asked for and will be granted a release. But that happened after the trades, and it feels like the Lions’ Super Bowl window is starting to close, so I think they’re in the business of getting proven commodities rather than taking on a developmental player who struggled last season.
Long story short, I don’t think they would have traded Montgomery for Glaze straight up. But yes, that is a trade I would do if they’d accept.
Q: Do you think Isaiah Pola-Mao is suitable to play the big nickel role? Same body type as Nick Emmanwori and he seems like he can tackle pretty well. Or is Jeremy Chinn better suited for it?
A: Chinn is definitely more suited for it. That’s the role he’s been playing for basically his entire career, including last season.
We’re definitely not on the same page with Pola-Mao. The Raiders have him listed at 204 pounds while the Seahawks have Emmanwori at 220. Also, Emmanwori is a physical freak who ran a 4.38-second 40-yard dash and has a 43-inch vertical at that size. In comparison, Pola-Mao runs a 4.51 and has a 31-inch vert. At 221 pounds with 4.45 speed and a 41-inch jump, Chinn fits the physical profile you’re talking about a lot more.
For the record, IPM tied for the third-most missed tackles (21) and the ninth-worst missed tackle rate (19.4 percent) among safeties during the 2025 regular season, per Pro Football Focus.
Q: Rob Leonard is switching to a 3-4 defense. He is a defensive disciple of Mike Macdonald, who also deployed a 3-4 as well as a 4-2-5 scheme. What will Leonard’s defense look like on the back end? What players in both FA and the draft best fit Leonard’s scheme for the secondary?
A: I wouldn’t consider Leonard a Macdonald disciple since they only spent one season together in Baltimore. Leonard is more connected to Patrick Graham than anyone else.
I’ve gotten the coverage question a bunch and understand where it’s coming from, but the truth of the matter is that we have no idea what Leonard’s plans are with the secondary. His entire career has been coaching the front seven, and primarily the defensive line at that, so it’s a bit of a mystery on what he’ll do coverage-wise.
That being said, I imagine defensive passing game coordinator Joe Woods will have a lot of pull when it comes to the secondary since that’s where his background is. Woods and Kubiak worked under Dennis Allen with the New Orleans Saints, and Woods was on Allen’s staff in Oakland in 2014 before the latter got fired. That could mean a lot of man coverage or Cover 5 (more commonly known as 2-Man), but that’s still speculative.
So, from an outsider’s perspective, it’s hard to say which cornerbacks and safeties are good or bad fits right now.
A: To be clear, I have no inside sources or information about what goes on or the power dynamics at the Raiders’ HQ. So, I have no idea how much truth there is to Mike Silver’s story on The Athletic earlier this week.
I did read the article, and it read more like Silver just taking shots at the organization rather than providing any sort of new information. Him ending the piece by suggesting Crosby will try to injure Mendoza in practice if Crosby didn’t get traded is a wild take, to say the least.
But, to Silver’s credit, there could be some legs to the Alex Guerrero stuff. Toward the end of Tom Brady’s days with the New England Patriots, it was widely reported that Guerrero was banned from the facilities for a lot of the same claims that Silver made in the article above.
Now, is Silver using that and blindly applying it to the Raiders, leaning on the previous reports for credibility, rather than actually knowing what’s going on in Las Vegas? Unfortunately, I don’t know and don’t have an answer for you. What I do know, thanks to ESPN’s Kalyn Kahler getting ahold of the NFLPA’s survey results, is that the Raiders received an ‘A’ in the Nutritionist/Dietician category…
A: I mean, the Raiders’ defense has ranked 25th in points allowed with Crosby on it during the last two seasons, and the team was going to enter the offseason with needs at every position on that side of the ball regardless of whether Crosby was traded. So, if you’re worried about the defense impacting the offense’s development, it was going to be a concern even if he were still on the roster.
At the end of the day, this is a rebuild that is likely going to take more than one offseason to fix and a defense that needs several players to fill several holes. To me, that’s part of the reason why it makes sense to get multiple assets for a player who is approaching 30 years old. I love the guy and what he brings to the team, but the Raiders are more than a Maxx Crosby away from fielding a competitive defense in 2026 and beyond.
That’ll do it for this week’s mailbag. Thank you all for submitting questions and, as your weekly reminder, if you’d like to have your questions answered in a future column, tweet them at me, @MHolder95, email them to SBPQuestions1@gmail.com or look for our weekly call for questions on the site. The latter will continue to publish on Thursdays.
