The Las Vegas Raiders made plenty of splashy moves this offseason, and there’s optimism in the air. The Raiders actually have a plan at quarterback, and they spent big in free agency to start their roster overhaul.

But this is just the beginning, really. Mike Clay, Aaron Schatz and Seth Walder of ESPN did a piece ranking the roster of every team in the NFL, and the fact that the Raiders checked in at 27th reflects just how hard a turnaround is going to be. The writers also flagged the strengths, weaknesses and a couple of other factors for each roster, so let’s go there and see what they identified and why it matters.

Biggest strength: Tight end

An obvious choice, but still meaningful. Tight end Brock Bowers is the lone star on offense, and Michael Mayer has been solid when he’s been able to stay on the field. Expect to see plenty of two-tight end sets early as the Raiders try to figure out what they’ve got up front. It won’t be explosive, but the Raiders would settle for competent after last year.

Biggest weakness: Interior defensive line

This choice was interesting. The writers could easily have selected the secondary or the receiving group, but instead they chose this group. The list of names reveals why: Adam Butler, Jonah Laulu and Thomas Booker IV weren’t particularly good, as Clay noted, and the additions include the likes of Benito Jones, Tonka Hemingway and JJ Pegues. Self-explanatory.

X factor for 2026: The right side of the offensive line

Lots of possible choices here, too, but this makes sense. The Raiders are assuming they can at least get competence from Jackson Powers-Johnson at guard and DJ Glaze as the right tackle after signing center Tyler Linderbaum to help coordinate the group, but Walder also noted that both Powers-Johnson and Glaze were either below overage or downright poor, respectively, when it came to pass-block wins. That makes competence feel like a large leap of faith until we see it on the field.

Rogers moved inside for the Raiders after starting at tackle in college, and he had a 90.7 pass block win rate in six starts, accordign to the writers. That’s a small sample size, but they also noted that the Raiders are moving to a zone running game concept this season, which is a good fit for Rogers’ skill set, they added. He could wind up seeing a lot more action this year.

Nonstarter to know: G Caleb Rogers