Las Vegas Raiders Week 1 Depth Chart: 4 surprises vs. the Miami Dolphins, including rookie QB Fernando Mendoza
The Las Vegas Raiders have released their depth chart for the 2026 season just before Week 1, and Fernando Mendoza is one of the surprises.
The Las Vegas Raiders released their Week 1 depth chart, the first of the season. This is what the team will look like vs. the Miami Dolphins for their first game. And it may not be the same for the rest of the season. That’s just how these types of things work.
But there are four things that definitely stand out with this depth chart. Here are the four biggest surprises with the Raiders’ first depth chart of the season. And it starts with the No. 1 overall pick, Fernando Mendoza.
4 surprises with the Raiders’ Week 1 depth chart vs. the Dolphins
Fernando Mendoza is QB2
Now, this one may seem obvious to some. However, you can certainly describe this one as a surprise. Questions arose once Kirk Cousins was named the starter. Since Mendoza hadn’t played in an actual game yet, would Aidan O’Connell, with 17 games of starting experience, be QB2 early in the season?
If Cousins got hurt, would AOC be the guy to go in? Maybe, but this tells me the next man up is Mendoza. And maybe it’s still O’Connell, which is really an in-game moment whenever that does happen.
Tonka Hemingway has surpassed Jonah Laulu for the DT2 spot
It’s no secret that Adam Butler is DT1 on this roster. But who would start next to him was a question entering the season. In the offseason, it really wasn’t a question, though. Most of us had just assumed it was Laulu again. If you had told me at the end of last season that Hemingway, a second-year player, would be the starter in 2026, I would have laughed.
Not because he wasn’t good. Not because Hemingway wasn’t worthy. But we never saw much of him last season. And even though we heard about him during camp, it wasn’t anything crazy. Now, he’s a starter for a franchise that loves its defensive tackles.
Jackson Powers-Johnson finally won the starting job over Caleb Rogers
I think most of us assumed that would happen. However, this battle between JPJ, the former second-round pick, and Rogers, the former third-round pick, was dragged out for so long. Rogers gave this battle everything he had. In camp, he was likely the more consistent. But JPJ has the higher ceiling, and I think everyone can see that.
This is not a case of “if you have two right guards (or any player), you have no right guard.” No, this is the Raiders having two starters at one position. Because of these two, this offensive line has much better depth than it did this time last year.
Rookie DB Treydan Stukes is starting at free safety over Isaiah Pola-Mao
The Raiders drafted Stukes with their second-round pick. So, some may be asking, why is this a surprise? Well, Stukes didn’t get much playing time until the last week or so of training camp. Many thought Stukes would be a situational starter.
He can play in the slot and at free safety. Instead, he gets the starting position at free safety. Some thought he would be a backup nickel more than a safety. However, he played free safety at Arizona, just a different variation than most. He can be a true centerfielder.
