Kirk Cousins has great respect for Las Vegas Raiders coach Klint Kubiak and offensive line coach Rick Dennison and all who put the time in to scheme things for those behemoths up front.
It all starts, according to the quarterback Cousins, with fundamentals and how they’re taught.
“Just the way the (offensive line) goes about its work every day,” he said. “The way they grind through it mentally and physically. But it’s one day at a time, one week at a time, and we’ll see where we’re standing in the end.”
That’s a key for Cousins or rookie Fernando Mendoza or whoever might be dropping back to throw passes.
Standing up.
That’s a key for this offensive line.
Which better prove to be far more accomplished than recent ones for the Raiders.
It hasn’t been good of late, those up front finding it difficult to discover much success as the Raiders have failed themselves into losing records.
Linderbaum the key
Talk all you want about who’s going to be the long-term quarterback this season and how good a campaign second-year running back Ashton Jeanty might have when healthy and how tight end Brock Bowers will continue to prove himself one of the NFL’s best.
If the line doesn’t finally produce at a high level, none of that matters. The Raiders just won’t win many games.
You might consider Mendoza the team’s biggest offseason acquisition as a No. 1 overall draft pick and that’s fine. He’s the future at the most important of positions.
I would argue center Tyler Linderbaum is a close second.
The Raiders desperately needed to upgrade their front and signing Linderbaum to a massive contract was one of the smarter moves made by general manager John Spytek.
They needed someone to lead, to be the rock, to aid the line in overcoming the adversity it is sure to encounter at times this season. So they went out and got one of the league’s finest players at his spot.
“Yeah, I think we’re making a lot of strides,” Linderbaum said. “Not where we want to be — we’re going to continue to work on operation standpoint things, working together.
“I think the thing about the offensive line position is just the more reps you get with each other, the better you get. At least the good teams, the better you get. So, just continue to strive for that and continue to get better each and every day in practice.”
It’s a front working on being more conditioned, more connected, more disciplined. The communication of it all. Working against different defensive looks. Learning new faces and terminology.
They’re trying not to focus on what went wrong in previous years, how bad things were at times. It’s more about what they’re asked to do on a daily basis now, for each practice, getting better on each rep and moving on.
The Raiders want to run the ball. They want to be physical. They want to line up and smash folks. It’s easier said than done.
“I think you have to earn that right,” Linderbaum said. “You can talk about it, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to be about it. When that ball is snapped, you have to prove to the coaches, to the opposing team, that you’re able and capable of running the football.
“So that’s what we’re striving to do right now — is get out all the kinks in practice, and then when we line it up on Sundays, that’s the team that we want to be.”
Depth important
There were position battles in training camp, and that’s a good thing. There isn’t an offensive line across the league that doesn’t need some level of competent depth. The Raiders definitely fall into that category.
Dennison doesn’t play around. He’s a tough coach. If someone makes a mistake, he gets mad. If someone makes the same mistake twice, he gets really mad. They need that to be better. They need that to be the sort of line that can (finally) make a difference.
“Well, I don’t think we have anybody in the room that doesn’t want to be pushed,” Dennison said. “That’s why they’re here. If they weren’t that way, they probably wouldn’t be here, right? So I don’t know if I’m tough or not. I’m just me.
“It’s important that they know that their jobs are essential for all 11 to do right. It’s not just one guy. All 11 have got to do something right. So, we can’t just say we’re successful because one guy did it right. We’ve all got to work together. That’s why the five of them have got to work hard.”
And if so, maybe, just maybe, things will be a whole lot better up front.
Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.
