The Las Vegas Raiders are set to trim their roster down to 53 players by Aug. 26 and there is at least one rookie who could pull off an upset and make the cut.
That rookie is offensive lineman Laki Tasi, who The Athletic's Tashan Reed sees making the initial 53-man roster.
Here's what Reed had to say about Tasi making the cut:
"The Raiders could risk Tasi getting claimed on waivers, but I just don’t think it’s worth it. While he won’t be ready to play this year, his size, length, strength, athleticism and fluid movement skills give him a lot of upside," Reed said.
Reed has Las Vegas keeping 10 offensive linemen in total: Kolton Miller, Dylan Parham, Jordan Meredith, Jackson Powers-Johnson, DJ Glaze, Alex Cappa, Thayer Munford, Caleb Rogers, Charles Grant and Tasi.
Tasi joined the Raiders in 2025 as an International Player Pathway Program signing, but the expectation was he'd end up on the practice squad, so if he makes the cut, it would be a huge upset.
After all, Tasi just started playing football after being a rugby player since the age of 12, and he made a position switch from defensive to offensive line in the middle of his first NFL offseason.
While he doesn't have experience, Tasi does have a massive 6-foot-6, 348-pound frame and he has been using every inch and pound of it to move bodies while playing at guard during the preseason, where he has flashed some promise.
If we've seen Tasi doing that, other teams have as well, which means he's no lock to make it through waivers without being claimed. The only way to prevent that from potentially happening is to keep Tasi on the 53-man squad.
The biggest problem we can see with keeping Tasi is that the Raiders are going to have a ton of inexperienced depth, as Rogers, Grant and Tasi are all rookies.
We'll find out exactly what the Raiders plan to do by roster cutdown day on Tuesday.
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