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Las Vegas Raiders training camp is here and rookies report to the Intermountain Health Performance Center in Henderson, Nevada, on Thursday. That’s five days before the veterans follow them in, and that gap matters more than it looks on a calendar.
It’s Klint Kubiak‘s window to get a look at what he actually has before Kirk Cousins, Maxx Crosby and the rest of the established roster start eating up practice reps. Three names are worth building your camp-watch list around: Fernando Mendoza, Treydan Stukes and Mike Washington Jr.
Also Read:: Raiders’ Wide Receiver Room Could Be the Real Ceiling on Kubiak’s Offense in 2026
Fernando Mendoza
Start with Mendoza, because everyone else already has. The No. 1 overall pick comes in with a Heisman and a national title, and about as much hype as a rookie quarterback can carry into a building that already has a four-time Pro Bowler at the position. My position on this hasn’t changed: Cousins opens the season as the starter, and Mendoza’s real debut lines up somewhere around Week 7 or 8, not Week 1. What camp will actually tell us is something narrower and more useful: whether Mendoza can operate against a real front seven with the ones and twos rotating through and whether the answer changes how much patience Kubiak can afford if Cousins is ever injured or hits a rough stretch in September or October.
Related: Raiders Won’t Hand Fernando Mendoza the QB Job, and Kubiak Explained Why
Treydan Stukes
Treydan Stukes is the one rookie I’d argue has the cleanest shot at stealing snaps that count in 2026. At Arizona last year, Stukes picked off four passes and held quarterbacks to a 26.1% completion rate when he was the primary defender on a target. Isaiah Pola-Mao‘s inconsistency at deep middle safety last year left an opening a rookie with Stukes’ range could realistically win outright. He’s already talking like a starter, too. Asked about Kubiak during minicamp, Stukes said the coach “has been super good to the rookies” and that the staff isn’t “trying to wait around” on building a championship-level operation. The Raiders spent a second-round pick, No. 38 overall, to get him, and it shows in how much defensive install he’s already handling.
Mike Washington, Jr.
Then there’s Mike Washington Jr., a fourth-round pick out of Arkansas who ran a 4.33 at the combine — the fastest 40 among all running backs at the 2026 combine, a group scouts called the fastest ever. Kubiak has said openly he wants a real two-back rotation to take reps off Ashton Jeanty, and Washington is the only notable addition to that room this offseason. Jeanty has already co-signed the pairing, saying on a livestream that their run styles will definitely complement each other. Whether that turns into a real role by Week 1 or fades once the pads come on is the actual question, and only live reps against Raiders starters will answer it.
None of these questions on the Raiders rookie class get answered this week. What camp does is start separating the players who look good in shorts from the ones who hold up against real competition. You know, when Crosby, Dean. Walker and the defensive front start teeing off. Mendoza gets the headlines because he’s the No. 1 pick. Stukes is the one with the better real shot at a Week 1 job. And by October, don’t be surprised if it’s Washington who ends up mattering most to this offense.
These are the three rookies I’ll be watching the closest when the Raiders rookies hit camp on Thursday.
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