The Las Vegas Raiders have a good opportunity to start the 2026 season off on the right foot in Week 1 against the Miami Dolphins. While both teams are considered longshots to win the Super Bowl, the betting odds give Las Vegas a slight advantage over Miami. But if the Raiders are going to get the ‘W’ in their season/home opener, winning these three key matchups will be paramount.
Raiders LBs vs. Dolphins Backfield
The Dolphins have one of the most electric running backs in the NFL. De’Von Achane has a career average of 5.6 yards per
carry and is coming off his first 1,000-rushing-yard performance, finishing first among running backs in breakaway runs (24 rushes of 15 yards or more) and breakaway yards (622) last season, per Pro Football Focus. The Texas A&M product with 4.32 speed is a home-run hitter, and Miami’s backfield is expected to be even more dynamic after adding quarterback Malik Willis in the offseason.
Willis comes over from the Green Bay Packers, where he spent the majority of the last two seasons backing up Jordan Love. However, the former Packer did appear in 11 games with three starts over the last couple of years, primarily being used in subpackages as a rushing threat with 42 carries for 261 yards (6.2 ypc) and three touchdowns during that timeframe.
Now the Dolphins’ starter, one has to imagine Miami’s offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik will dial up at least a few read options or quarterback runs for Willis to maximize his skill set and force defenses to account for him in the running game. That puts a heavy emphasis on the Raiders’ new linebackers, Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker.
Dean is known for his instincts, especially against the run. While a combination of injuries and a career-high 14.3 percent missed tackle rate led to a career-low 42.9 PFF run defense grade in 2025, two years ago he ranked third among NFL linebackers with 38 ‘defensive stops’ against the run and second with a 12.5 percent run stop rate. That coincided with a career-high 15 starts and resulted in a career-high 82.5 run defense mark.
Additionally, the former Philadelphia Eagle has become one of the league’s best off-ball blitzers during the last two years, racking up seven sacks and 26 pressures on 101 pass rushes, per PFF. Considering Willis’ legs and scrambling ability, Dean’s ability to rush the passer and be an effective quarterback spy should play a big factor on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Walker is still putting it all together as an NFL linebacker. He took big strides with his instincts against the run last year to finish tied for 21st at the position with 27 run stops and tied for 25th with a 7.8 percent run stop rate, per PFF. Also, the former Packer has been a pretty consistent tackler with a miss rate below eight percent over the last three years.
Where Walker can get in trouble against the Dolphins is in coverage. His awareness in that phase of the game is still a work in progress, and Achane is also a dynamic receiver out of the backfield who has 172 career catches for 1,277 yards and 13 touchdowns over three seasons. The 2022 first-round pick posted a 9.63 Relative Athletic Score (RAS) coming out of Georgia, meaning he has the athleticism to get the job done when he’s in the right spot.
Long story short, the former Bulldogs will have their hands full on Sunday with the Dolphins’ backfield.
Glaze vs. Robinson
The first true one-on-one matchup featured here will pit a pair of former Big Ten foes and 2024 draft classmates against each other. Raiders’ right tackle DJ Glaze hails from Maryland and Dolphins’ edge rusher Chop Robinson played his college ball at Penn State.
In 2022, Glaze was in his second year as a starter and had his worst game in pass protection against the Nittany Lions, giving up a season-high four pressures (one sack) and recording a season-low 44.9 pass blocking grade, per PFF. Meanwhile, Robinson had an excellent outing with five pressures and two sacks on just 19 pass-rush snaps. Unfortunately, the latter missed the matchup the following year.
In a way, that outing was a precursor to Glaze’s struggles in the NFL. He’s had issues in pass protection, yielding the second-most pressures (48) and sacks (10) among offensive tackles last season, according to PFF. More specifically, the third-round pick has had trouble with speed rushers, which has been and still is Robinson’s biggest calling card.
The former first-round pass-rusher battled injuries a year ago, leading to a disappointing sophomore campaign with just 19 pressures and four sacks. However, when fully healthy as a rookie, he finished tied for 19th among all edges with 56 pressures (seven sacks) and trailed only 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year Jared Verse (77) in the draft class.
So, this will be an opportunity for Glaze to get some retribution and show how much he’s grown under new offensive line coach Rick Dennison. Also, the two players should be very familiar with each other because they were also teammates for a year in college. Robinson spent his true freshman season at Maryland in 2021, when Glaze was a redshirt freshman.
Powers-Johnson vs. Sieler
Zach Sieler may not have much name recognition with no Pro Bowl or All-Pro bids yet, but make no mistake about it: he’s a problem in the trenches.
The nine-year pro did have a dip in pass-rush production with 32 pressures and 5.5 sacks last year. However, he had back-to-back seasons with double-digit sacks, recording 10 in both 2023 and 2024, and had 102 pressures during that timeframe.
Additionally, Sieler has been a steady run defender throughout his tenure in Miami, posting PFF run defense grades in the mid-60s to high-70s six times in seven seasons. And the lone outlier is a solid 63.2 mark in 2023. Last year, a 69.1 grade was enough to finish 17th among defensive tackles, and 17 defensive stops against the run is nothing to scoff at.
While the versatile defensive lineman recorded most of his snaps as a right defensive tackle (311 out of 780), he can play multiple alignments and will flip sides of the center. Especially since the Raiders had a position battle for the starting right guard spot, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Dolphins test Jackson Powers-Johnson with Sieler early in the game.
Powers-Johnson has provided strong moments and games over the last two seasons to give reason to believe that he has a bright future in the league, but he’s struggled with consistency. That’s especially true in pass protection, where the 2024 second-round pick surrendered 10 pressures (two sacks) on just 196 opportunities in 2025, per PFF. The good news for the Raiders is that he’s been solid in the running game, with run-blocking marks of 70.4 and 66.6 to help match up with Sieler on Sunday.
Much like Glaze, this will be a good opportunity for JPJ to showcase the work he put in during the offseason.
