Right guard has been a trouble spot on the Las Vegas Raiders’ depth chart so far this season. Through eight games/weeks, the Raiders have already had three starters at the position: Jackson Powers-Johnson, Caleb Rogers and Trey Zuhn III.
Week 8 against the New York Jets was Zuhn’s crack at it, making his first NFL start, and the rookie played well enough to get a vote of confidence from head coach Klint Kubiak.
“I thought Trey was calm in there. I thought he was well prepared,” Kubiak said during his
Monday post-game press conference (h/t The Athletic’s Sam Warren). “That was not a surprise, but I thought he played well. I think there are things that he’s going to want to improve on. But I was pleased, along with the coaching staff, with the effort that he put on the field and what his future looks like for us.”
Kubiak didn’t outright say that Zuhn will remain the starting right guard moving forward, but it’s hard to imagine that the third-round pick will be sent back to the bench after his performance. According to Sumer Sports, he recorded three “impact plays”, which tied for the third-most of the team’s offensive linemen and only two behind the team leader, center Tyler Linderbaum.
Additionally, the Raiders struggled to run the ball during a four-game losing streak in October, and the offense recorded the most rushing yards (95) it’s had since the team’s last win in Week 3. Also, quarterback Kirk Cousins was only sacked once on Sunday, giving even less reason to make a change to the offensive line heading into next week’s matchup against the San Francisco 49ers.
Kubiak dropped a few other interesting nuggets of information on Monday, as a handful of other highlights from his presser are below:
- On whether the workload split between running backs Mike Washington Jr. (25 carries) and Ashton Jeanty (two carries) will continue, he said: “It’s always a moving target…Who is playing the best ball at the time. It’s a 17-game regular season where things change every week. (via Warren)
- Cornerback Darien Porter (groin) left the game after one play, and his status for Week 9 is up in the air as the Raiders will monitor his progress throughout the week. (via Warren)
- Jermod McCoy replaced Porter initially instead of Hezekiah Masses because Kubiak said the coaching staff wanted to get McCoy some exposure, and “that’s going to continue”. (via Warren)
- On McCoy’s and Masses’ performances: “I think obviously Zeke made some plays for us. Had a big tipped pass. Jermod, his first action, he’s gonna continue to get better. He’s got plenty of things to improve on, as does Zeke, as does DP, as does everybody. But we feel like we’re gonna continue to rotate those guys through.” (via Warren)
- Veteran cornerback Eric Stokes was picked on by the Jets, but the Raiders never considered benching him, according to Kubiak. “I think the Jets had a really good plan overall. And I think, again, when you play defensive back in the NFL, at some point you’re gonna get beat, but how do you respond when that happens? And when a defensive back gets beat, everybody knows about it. But if a guard loses in the run game, it’s not discussed as much. So you gotta have thick skin; you’ve gotta be able to move on to the next down. And so, I’m really glad we got No. 5.” (via Warren)
- Defensive tackle Tonka Hemingway only played 13 snaps, partially due to a stinger, which the team will monitor throughout the week. (via Warren)
