Raiders Camp — Aug 31: Three Quarterbacks Stay, No Week 1 Starter Named

The Raiders kept all three quarterbacks — Kirk Cousins, Fernando Mendoza and Aidan O'Connell all made the initial 53-man roster on Sunday, with O'Connell retained for a fourth season, per Adam Hill at the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That answers the cutdown question our last episode flagged as the one to watch. What did not survive the week was the coach's public answer to the question behind it. On Friday, Klint Kubiak declined to formally name a Week 1 starter: "We have three guys that are ready to play," he said, with "hard decisions on who's one, who's two," per Hill. Seven days earlier he had called the job Cousins' "to lose," per Sam Gordon at the Review-Journal — the flag our last episode closed on came down inside the week. The facts on either side of the quote: Cousins started Thursday's preseason finale with the first unit, and Levi Edwards at Raiders.com still writes him up as the favorite. No Kubiak or general manager John Spytek availability surfaced over cut weekend itself, so "who's one, who's two" stands as the last public word going into game week.

The busiest line of Sunday's ledger was a trade. Hours before the 3 p.m. deadline, the Raiders sent offensive lineman Jordan Meredith and a 2029 seventh-round pick to the Jets for a conditional 2027 sixth-round pick, per Hill — Ian Rapoport had the deal first, per Charean Williams at NBC Sports ProFootballTalk, who adds that Meredith, 28, had struggled in his transition to center and reunites with Geno Smith in New York. The rest of the wave ran heavy on veterans: running back Dare Ogunbowale, receivers Phillip Dorsett II, Brandon Johnson and Deven Thompkins, tight ends Chris Myarick and Albert Okwuegbunam Jr., and linebackers Segun Olubi, Buddy Johnson and Cameron McGrone were released, per Hill, with kicker Kansei Matsuzawa waived — settling the kicking job on Matt Gay — alongside running back Roman Hemby, seventh-round defensive tackle Brandon Cleveland and edge rusher Jahfari Harvey. Two authors of the Houston comeback we covered in our last episode, Ogunbowale with the touchdown run and Harvey with the strip sack, went out in that wave, and Noah Brown, the veteran receiver whose signing we noted in that same episode, was released last Monday, eight days after signing, per Hill. Eight of the team's 10 2026 draft picks made the initial roster, per Edwards. Kubiak, ahead of the day: "It's awful. You develop relationships with these guys since April and they give you their heart and their soul," per Hill.

The costliest injury of the week belongs to rookie third-round edge rusher Keyron Crawford, carted off in the finale with an ankle injury and placed on injured reserve without a return designation on Sunday, ending his season, per Hill. Tight end Carter Runyon went to injured reserve with a designation to return, eligible around Week 5, per Gordon.

The two position battles our last episode left open reached cutdown without an announced winner: Kubiak wasn't ready to make announcements about key position battles, though at least two of the decisions are "pretty clear" after the finale, per Gordon. Jackson Powers-Johnson and second-year lineman Caleb Rogers both made the roster, per Gordon — before the finale, Kubiak had said the battle "continues" and that "I know both of those guys are gonna play this year," per Matt Legros at Raiders Wire. Darien Porter also made the 53, per Gordon. At receiver, the club kept six — Jack Bech, Malik Benson, Jalen Nailor, Dont'e Thornton Jr., Tre Tucker and Dareke Young, per Edwards — and Kubiak, asked about adding a receiver off waivers, said: "It's a possibility... We're first in the order, so that's something we're going to look hard at," per Edwards. The Raiders hold the No. 1 waiver priority and are expected to use it, per Hondo Carpenter at Sports Illustrated's Raiders site. Thornton made the roster despite missing practice through Friday with a training-camp injury, per Hill.

The finale, briefly: an 18-12 loss to the 49ers at Allegiant Stadium on Thursday, per Gordon. Cousins led the first unit — minus Ashton Jeanty — on two field-goal drives against San Francisco's backup defense, completing 8 of 11 for 51 yards. Mendoza played five drives, finishing 7 of 14 for 57 yards with an interception on a high pass intended for Nailor while taking two sacks and five hits; O'Connell did not enter until the final minute of the third quarter, per Gordon. Rookie running back Mike Washington Jr. ran 8 times for roughly 50 yards — Gordon has 51, the team site 49 — to close his preseason above 7 yards a carry, and Gay went 4 of 5 with a miss from 54, per Gordon and Edwards.

Which brings up a name our Aug 23 episode did not mention, and should have: Jeanty. The running back has been working back from an ankle sprain — the reporting on when and where it happened is not pinned to a named beat reporter, so we won't put a date on it — and on Sunday he made the 53 rather than a reserve list. "Still on the mend," Kubiak said Friday, "we're counting on him," adding, "We've got another week to assess how he's going to look going into this first game," per Hill. That is the verifiable record in full: on the roster, expected by his coach, not yet ruled anything for the opener against the Dolphins. The sprain is also context for Washington's August workload.

Back in July we previewed the Raiders' season as one real question wearing a quarterback controversy as a disguise — not whether Cousins starts Week 1, but when Mendoza takes over, because the rebuild's clock runs through the rookie's timeline. Cut day kept every piece of that question in the building, but not the part the framing treated as settled — "not whether Cousins starts" was the premise, and as of Friday the coach declines to answer exactly that in public. The beat still reads Cousins as the favorite, per Edwards, but the July frame now carries an asterisk it didn't have a week ago.

What to watch next: where the cut names land once waivers clear — the practice-squad wave is the next episode's job, and the beat expects several of the team's own cuts back, per Ezekiel Trezevant at Sports Illustrated's Raiders site, though nothing can form until noon Eastern on Monday. With the No. 1 priority and a coach openly discussing receiver help, the claim wire itself is a Raiders story. Then the two Week 1 questions: whether Kubiak names a starting quarterback, and how Jeanty's practice week goes. We'll check back once the claims and the practice squads are in.

_Data via nflverse._