Trey Zuhn III gives Las Vegas Raiders roster Mendoza insurance via 2026 NFL draft

When Texas A&M took on Miami in the first round of the College Football Playoffs, Zuhn had a pretty good performance in pass protection against the 15th pick of the draft, Rueben Bain Jr. The former Aggie did a great job of playing the game within the game to exploit Bain’s biggest weakness—a lack of arm length.

While Zuhn has below-average length for an offensive tackle (32.5-inch arms), he still has over an inch-and-a-half advantage over the Tyransaurs Rex from South Beach (30.875-inch arms). Especially since the latter’s game is rooted in power, the best way for the offensive lineman to take advantage of that is to force the pass-rusher to operate in space.

In the clip above, Zuhn stays patient and makes a concerted effort to maintain about a yard of separation from Bain rather than being aggressive and engaging shortly after the snap. That allows Zuhn to use his length advantage to make the first significant contact and get Bain away from his bread and butter, working finesse moves rather than bull rushing.

All of these factors help the offensive tackle win the hand fight and successfully protect the quarterback’s blind side on this rep.

The situation is a little different this time, with Bain playing from a wider alignment rather than being head up on Zuhn as he was in the previous clip. That makes the situation more complicated for the offensive lineman because he still wants to force Bain to operate in space, but Zuhn also doesn’t want to give Bain too much room to build up a head of steam to turn speed to power and run through his chest.

So, the tackle uses a 45-degree pass set, where he works for width and depth to go out and get the edge rusher while still maintaining the one-yard cushion mentioned above. The problem with that for a lot of tackles is that they tend to work too wide or overset, opening up an inside pass-rush lane.

However, Zuhn maintains a perfect distance from Bain, where his inside foot is lined up with the middle of the pass-rusher’s body. That puts the tackle in a spot to run the defender past the quarterback against a high-side rush and simultaneously defend against an inside move.

From there, the rep essentially turns into the one we just watched, where Zuhn forces Bain to beat him with finesse instead of power. Zuhn also shows some nuance in pass protection by throwing a fake punch or flashing his hands before taking them away.

That gets Bain to start his pass-rush move, but Bain misses with the cross chop and is off-balance since Zuhn’s hands/arms aren’t there anymore. As a result, the tackle makes the first significant contact and controls the pass-rusher, giving the quarterback a clean pocket.

For the record, Bain had three sacks in this game, but none came against Zuhn. Akheem Mesidor did beat Zuhn with an inside move for a sack, but that was one of two pressures (and the only sack) the latter allowed on 52 snaps in pass protection against the Hurricanes, per PFF.

More generally speaking, something that stands out about the Texas A&M product’s pass-pro skills is his ability to recognize and pick up stunts/line games. That really shines through in this clip because it isn’t a standard dropback pass or protection call.

Texas A&M dials up a play-action pass where they’re faking a power run call in the backfield, meaning the right guard pulls to protect the edge and the left tackle steps down to block the defensive tackle. So, Zuhn’s attention is focused on the 3-technique (No. 47) initially, as he’s staring at No. 47 pre-snap and the beginning of the play.

However, Zuhn starts to feel the defensive end slanting hard inside, which likely sets off an alarm in his brain that something is up and the defense is running a line game. Then, he shifts his eyes to the end and engages the end with good pad level and hand placement to exaggerate where the defender wants to go, washing him inside to negate the stunt.

All of that’s the result of having a high football IQ.

This next play is a traditional pass set, so the stunt pickup is a lot more straightforward. But Notre Dame does muddy the pre-snap look by putting two standup linebackers on the line of scrimmage outside of the left tackle, on top of running a four-man line game post-snap.

Based on the defensive front, Zuhn’s primary responsibility is the most inside outside linebacker (No. 5), and the running back picks up the other outside backer (No. 4). However, when No. 5 loops inside, Zuhn’s assignment changes to the defensive end (No. 41).

Luckily, he does a good job of using his inside hand to feel the defensive end. So, when the outside backer goes inside, the tackle already knows where the end is and can seamlessly pick up his new assignment.

While the looper gets pressure because the center is late to pick him up, Zuhn has effectively done his job, showing off some impressive mental processing and ability to adjust on the fly along the way.

As a run blocker, Zuhn is average at best. He posted a 59.7 PFF run blocking grade last season and doesn’t generate much movement against defensive linemen in the running game. He does a decent job of getting in the way and keeping his man from making the tackle, but don’t expect the third-round pick to be creating many rushing lanes. That being said, something he is good at is picking up blitzing linebackers.

Here, Texas A&M is running inside zone to the right or the weak side of the formation, putting Zuhn as the backside tackle on the play call. Exemplified by his 1.70-second 10-yard split—which earned a 9.72 RAS—he does have a great get-off, and that allows the tackle to close the B-gap on this rep. That’s significant because the WILL linebacker (No. 31) is blitzing and looking to shoot an inside rushing lane.

With Zuhn protecting the B-gap, the linebacker has to work around him and away from the play design on the interior run. In other words, he’s already forcing the defense to adjust and be in a bad position.

To make that even better, Zuhn redirects and widens the backer, picking the unblocked edge defender (Bain) in the process to get a two-for-one advantage for the offense. In other words, one blocker prevents two defenders from making the tackle. That creates a wide cutback lane for the running back, turning what could have been a negative play into a gain of about six or seven yards.

It’s fair to question where Zuhn will fit in on the Raiders’ offensive line. He isn’t beating out Kolton Miller or Tyler Linderbaum, and Las Vegas already has Jackson Powers-Johnson, Caleb Rogers, Spencer Burford and Jordan Meredith battling it out at guard. The third-round pick’s best chance at cracking the starting lineup as a rookie is to beat out DJ Glaze and Charles Grant at right tackle, a position he barely played in college.

Additionally, it’s fair to question what Zuhn’s best position in the NFL will be. He lacks the ideal length for an offensive tackle, with arms that fall below the typical 33-inch threshold and are in the 19th percentile for offensive linemen in general, per MockDraftable. On top of that, he doesn’t have the power to move defensive tackles in the running game at guard.

That’s why this pick was controversial and viewed as a reach; the former Aggie might have a hard time finding a true position at the next level. But the Raiders did manage to land an offensive lineman who offers some versatility and can protect the edge. It’s just a matter of whether Zuhn can ever develop into a starter or is capped as a sixth offensive lineman who can lineup at any spot in a pinch.