The post-June 1 deadline has passed, and the month got started with a bang for the NFL with arguably the best player in the league, Myles Garrett, getting traded to the Los Angeles Rams right before A.J. Brown was officially sent to the New England Patriots. We’re touching on how that impacts the Las Vegas Raiders, who wrapped up OTAs this week and have mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, for this week’s mailbag.
Q: After seeing what the Browns got for Myles Garrett, will Maxx Crosby be back on the trade
block? And do you see any teams making a similar offer that the Rams made?
A: Crosby’s knee is the big factor that I think prevents a trade getting done or at least with compensation that the Raiders are looking for, and it doesn’t help that he still isn’t cleared for practice yet. Plus, he doesn’t seem to want to leave anymore and I don’t get the feeling that the front office was ever that interested in moving on from him, unless another team was willing to meet the high price tag.
So, I don’t think Garrett getting dealt puts Crosby back on the trade block, and it feels like an in-season trade near the deadline is more likely, if he’s going to get traded.
As far as another team making Las Vegas a similar offer to what Cleveland received for Garrett, as mentioned above, Garrett’s in the “best player in the NFL” conversation and, in my opinion, he’s the best pass-rusher in NFL history. Crosby isn’t in that category, meaning no other club is offering first-, second- and third-round picks plus a former first-round pick (Jared Verse) who is worth at least another first and probably even more.
However, this does help give John Spytek more leverage. Again, the two players aren’t the same caliber, but Spytek can point to the Garrett trade and say that two first-round picks isn’t such a bad deal for a quality edge-rusher since someone at the position just got dealt for three Top 100 selections and a 25-year-old who has made Pro Bowls in each of his first two seasons and is still under team control for three more years.
Q: Typical per-game defensive snap count for Pola-Mao in 2026?
A: For context, Pola-Mao played nearly 1,100 snaps (about 64 snaps per game) and was on the field 96 percent of the time last season, per Pro Football Reference. My early prediction is that number gets cut in half this season, around 30 per game.
Pola-Mao showed he isn’t a true free safety last season, and Jeremy Chinn is the better option at strong safety. Granted, the Raiders don’t have many options on the backend of the defense, as Treydan Stukes was primarily a nickelback at Arizona. But Stukes does have some experience playing free safety and has the better profile for the position than IPM does, as the rookie is the superior athlete and has the better ball skills of the two.
Long story short, I like Stukes to take over as the starting free safety while Pola-Mao becomes more of a rotational player off the bench.
Q: Your guess for starting 5 OL?
A: LT Kolton Miller, LG Jackson Powers-Johnson, C Tyler Linderbaum, RG Caleb Rogers, RT Charles Grant.
Miller and Linderbaum are locks, while JPJ is the favorite to win one of the two guard jobs. I’m also bullish on JPJ that he’ll bounceback this season. It was a small sample size, but I liked what I saw from Rogers last year to feel like he can beat out Spencer Burford and Jordan Meredith. Meanwhile, Grant is a perfect fit in Klint Kubiak’s offense because he has good feet and movement skills, unlike D.J. Glaze.
A: It’s a talent issue on the interior defensive line. I’m interested to see if one of the young guys (Jonah Laulu, Thomas Booker IV, Tonka Hemingway, JJ Pegues, Brandon Clevevland, etc.) steps up this season. But Hemingway, a 2025 fourth-round pick, is the highest-drafted player of the bunch.
I think the Christian Wilkins debacle really set the Raiders’ defensive tackle situation back. During the 2025 offseason, the front office didn’t have to prioritize defensive tackle because the defense already had a big-ticket player at the position. Then this spring, there were too many needs for Spytek to address them all in one offseason, and he choose to prioritize other spots. Having a handful of young options already could have influenced that.
So, the position is definitely a potential weakness for the Raiders where the organization is waiting or counting on one or two of the guys above to take the next step in their career. If that doesn’t happen, expect defensive tackle to be a big need heading into the 2027 offseason.
A: Let’s be clear, the Raiders’ primary goal with the quarterback situation is and should be setting up Fernando Mendoza to have long-term success. If I’m Klint Kubiak, I’m having Mendoza and Kirk Cousins split reps with the first and second team throughout training camp. I’d probably have a few days where the rookie works with both units to get him as many reps as possible while Cousins has a day off or a lightened workload.
If it were up to me, I wouldn’t be too concerned about getting Cousins ready to win games. He’s just a placeholder, and if Mendoza looks good and ready to start during training camp, the No. 1 pick could be the Week 1 starting quarterback anyway.
Even if Cousins wins the job, I’d still have the quarterbacks split reps with the first-team offense. It’d be closer to a 75/25 split than 50/50, where Mendoza is working with the scout team when he isn’t with the starters. But I’d still want him getting experience or at least a taste of how to prepare for a game as a starting quarterback in the NFL.
Of course, Kubiak and the team don’t want to go out there and get embaressed on Sundays. But I can’t stress enough that for this rebuild to be successful, the overall goal for the 2026 season needs to be focused on the team’s young core building for the future.
A: This has been a popular question this offseason, understandably so. I’m looking at this Raiders’ rebuild similar to the build-up to the 2016 squad, which has been the best team the Raiders have had since making the Super Bowl in 2003.
The 2014 Raiders were a young team, led by rookie quarterback Derek Carr, and were awful to begin the year, starting 0-10. But that unit finished strong, going 3-3 in their last six games and showing growth down the stretch to build some momentum. In 2015, they were scrappy and flirted with being a playoff contender, going 7-9 while continuing to get better as a team. All of that laid the foundation for ending the long-standing postseason drought.
Of course, the Raiders need to veer away from that blueprint after the 2016 campaign to remain a consistent winning organization. But if you’re looking for an optimistic yet still realistic three-year timeline, that’s the one I’m pointing toward. It’d be nice if this young core is ahead of schedule and is a playoff team by 2027, and they certainly could be, but I wouldn’t expect that at this stage.
A: I wouldn’t really compare Spytek’s situation to Tom Tellesco’s. The biggest reason Tellesco got fired was because Tom Brady officially became a mintority owner and defacto director of football operations, and Brady wanted to put his stamp on the organization or bring in “his guys”.
Understandably, this is another question I’ve gotten a lot this offseason. Year one certainly didn’t go well, but I do think a lot of people would have a different perspective on Spytek if the Raiders had a coaching staff that was willing to play the 2025 draft class more often in the second half of the season. Also, I like what the front office did this offseason to kick start the rebuild, targeting free agents looking for their second contracts and loading up on young talent in the draft.
I don’t agree with every move Sptyek has made this offseason. I’m still not over passing on Kayden McDonald in the draft, LOL! We’ll see how it works out but overall, I like the vision that the general manager has for the team and am optimisic about him moving forward.
1. Mendoza, but if he’s off the table, Dalton Johnson. The latter can be a hard-hitting safety that the fanbase typically gravitates towards, and it helps that he’s wearing George Atkinson’s number.
2. Linderbaum. Free-agent centers have a good history with this organization and he’s a stud.
3. Jack Bech. Good fit with Kubiak and I think will be much better with a bigger opportunity.
4. Easy, Crosby.
5. Linderbaum. Mendoza might not play enough and if Ashton Jeanty has a breakout season, it’ll be because the center brought stability to a very shaky offensive line. Brock Bowers is a close second because I think Kubiak is currently licking his chops thinking about all of the ways he can use the “Football Robot from Heaven”.
6. Crosby. Chalk pick, I know. But he’s still the team leader and the best player on the roster.
Bonus. I’ll go with three: Crosby, Linderbaum and Bowers.
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.
