The Las Vegas Raiders have their second preseason game of the 2026 season, giving the rookies on the roster another opportunity to make names for themselves and climb up the depth chart against the Houston Texans. With that in mind, let’s dive into five first-year players to pay extra attention to on Thursday evening in Houston.
Jermod McCoy
Last week was McCoy’s first football game in about two years, so it’s understandable that he had some struggles, most notably giving up a pair of touchdowns on goal-line fades.
But that does add some pressure in the upcoming contest for the fourth-round pick. There were hopes that he could at least push Darien Porter for a starting spot this season. However, McCoy appears to be a third-stringer right now, falling behind fellow rookie Hezekiah Masses and third-year pro Decamerion Richardson. Another bad outing likely means the former Volunteer will be a backup and potentially a healthy scratch on gamedays to begin the regular season.
Trey Zuhn III
Zuhn is the opposite case after a strong NFL debut versus the Arizona Cardinals last week. He exclusively lined up at right tackle, where there is an opportunity to earn a starting spot with DJ Glaze currently occupying the first-string role. But it will be interesting to see if the coaching staff wants to mix it up with the Texas A&M product. Versatility is one of his calling cards, and he’s been getting reps at just about every offensive line spot so far in training camp.
Meanwhile, guard Jackson Powers-Johnson suffered an injury during Monday’s practice and isn’t expected to play on Thursday. Caleb Rogers is anticipated to step into the starting lineup for Powers-Johnson, but that could open up an opportunity for Zuhn to get some game snaps on the interior with the second-team offense if the coaching staff is looking to see what he can do at guard.
Treydan Stukes
Stukes had a decent but nothing spectacular performance against the Cardinals, which sounds like it’s par for the course for him this summer. Reportedly, the second-round pick hasn’t been bad in camp per se, but he also isn’t making many plays to stand out and win the starting free safety job. That needs to change soon because the Arizona product is running out of time with less than two weeks of camp left. Additionally, Stukes is another guy who is considered versatile, so it will be interesting to see where the coaching staff lines him up.
Cian Slone
It’s not easy to make the team as an undrafted free agent, but Slone did his part last week by coming up with a couple of stops against the run and a sack around the edge. The problem is that earning a spot on the 53-man roster as a UDFA requires stacking several good performances on top of each other throughout the summer. So, he needs to have another strong outing in Houston, and doing so will give the coaching staff something to think about heading into the final week of training camp.
Brandon Cleveland
From one NC State product to another. The Cardinals ran all over the Raiders’ defense last week, accumulating 156 rushing yards and 4.3 yards per carry as a team with three running backs—Jeremiyah Love (5.3), Corey Kiner (5.9) and Bam Knight (5.0)—averaging over five yards per rush. Based on what The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen posted on X/Twitter, it was more of the same during Las Vegas’ joint practice in Houston.
Point blank, the defense needs a defensive tackle to step up and prove to be a run-stuffer. That was Cleveland’s calling card as a prospect, but he hasn’t generated much (if any) buzz in camp and was pretty quiet in the first preseason game. The opportunity is there for the seventh-round pick to carve out a role on the team, but he needs to take advantage of it.
