Pete Carroll had many a kryptonite during his lone season as the Las Vegas Raiders' head coach. While fans may always thank him in some convoluted way for landing the team the No. 1 pick to draft Fernando Mendoza, he obviously did more harm than good during his time with the Silver and Black.
His rigidity and unwillingness to change were what did him in in Las Vegas, as evidenced by not only keeping his son in place as the offensive line coach and run game coordinator, despite dismal results, but by his reluctance to sufficiently play the team's young players in what was clearly a lost season.
Due to injury, third-round rookie Caleb Rogers finally, after being inactive for much of the year, got to play in the final six contests of the 2025 campaign. Although he looked promising in limited action, John Spytek has added layers of competition for him in free agency and, most recently, the draft.
The selection of guard Trey Zuhn III in Round 3 has muddied Rogers' path to the starting lineup even more.
Las Vegas Raiders put several obstacles in Caleb Rogers' way during 2026 offseason
Rogers wasn't necessarily dominant over the last third of the season, but he showed plenty of glimpses as to why the front office wagered a third-round pick on him the previous spring. With 284 snaps under his belt, many thought he'd be in the conversation to start at one of the guard spots.
Nobody thought that Rogers would be handed the job, especially because, although his performance was encouraging, he still has plenty to clean up early in his career. And he ended the season on a rough note, giving up two sacks in a game littered with the Kansas City Chiefs' backup defenders.
But Rogers showed enough that most figured he'd be either in a competition for a starting job or the first guard to rotate in, if needed. But the Raiders quickly signed Tyler Linderbaum this offseason, and then re-signed Jordan Meredith, who, with Linderbaum in town, is likely to make a return to guard.
Then, later in the process, Las Vegas added a veteran guard in Spencer Burford, who has some skins on the wall and experience in Klint Kubiak's system. This made the road ahead challenging for Rogers, but at least most thought that they wouldn't add another interior offensive lineman in the draft.
However, the Silver and Black surprised the fanbase again, selecting Zuhn III in the third round of the 2026 NFL Draft. All of a sudden, Rogers has at least three others competing with him for what may just be one starting guard spot opposite Jackson Powers-Johnson.
For a player like Rogers, who will be learning his second different NFL offense in as many offseasons and doesn't have an ironclad résumé to show the new coaching staff, that will be a steep hill to climb. After looking like a potential starter, Rogers is going to have to claw for even a backup spot.
Although many fans were pulling for Rogers this offseason after he put out some solid tape at the end of the year, it isn't a bad problem for the Raiders to have if a promising young player can't even crack the starting lineup. Talent acquisition is the name of the game in Las Vegas, so the more, the merrier.
Adding cheap players on the open market is one thing for Rogers, as having role models and plug-and-play veterans makes sense for the new coaching staff. But another investment in a young guard like Zuhn III just a year after he was selected should put Rogers on high alert.
That said, Rogers could easily emerge from the pack. Again, Spytek utilized a third-round pick on him as well, and it's not as if Meredith or Burford are big-ticket free agents. But from a pure numbers standpoint, Rogers, who showed promise last year, is going to have his work cut out for him.
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