Kubiak opened with one line on Tonka Hemingway and then changed the subject: "Tonka is in a protocol and I'll take any of your questions." That's not a coach protecting a player — that's a coach telling you the decision isn't his. Protocol means league-mandated clearance steps, which means no designation, no timeline, and no coach-speak hedge to decode. For a Raiders defensive tackle room that lists six bodies behind a 2nd-year former fourth-rounder, that silence is the whole story.
The non-update is the update
"Tonka is in a protocol and I'll take any of your questions." — Kubiak, 12 words, zero details.
Read what's absent: no "day-to-day," no "we'll see," no "he's trending." Coordinators volunteer optimism when they have it. Kubiak's pivot to the open floor is the tell that the medical staff hasn't given him a date to repeat. The concrete implication: Hemingway's availability for the upcoming game should be treated as unresolved until the practice report says otherwise, and the snap vacuum goes to Adam Butler, Folorunso Fatukasi and Thomas Booker IV — the three interior linemen already carrying real downs.
He is the tackle leader of that room, and that's the awkward part
This isn't a pass-rush loss. Hemingway has 0 sacks in his last 5 games, and neither does most of the room — Booker and Butler are each tagged the same, Fatukasi the same over his last four. What Hemingway does is absorb run-down volume: 14 tackles in 5 games, which is more than Butler (12), Fatukasi (11), Booker (9), Jonah Laulu (3) and JJ Pegues (1 tackle in his only game).
Across a front where Maxx Crosby has 2 sacks and 9 tackles in 5 games, Malcolm Koonce has 3 sacks, and Kwity Paye has been held to 0 sacks in his last 4, the interior was already the soft spot. Removing the one interior lineman with a tackle profile doesn't create a pass-rush hole — it makes a run defense thinner in exactly the phase it can least afford it. That's a matchup note for whichever backfield is on the other sideline, not a fantasy note for yours.
The IDP read: Hemingway isn't rosterable, but the funnel gets narrower
The startable IDP assets on this defense are Nikobe Dean (44 tackles, 1.5 sacks) and Quay Walker (34 tackles, 1 sack). Neither is affected enough by a rotational DT absence to change a lineup decision. The real downstream concern is depth: behind Dean and Walker, the listed linebackers are Cody Lindenberg (6 tackles), Segun Olubi (7) and Tommy Eichenberg (9). A thinner interior means more second-level blocks to shed, and Dean — already at 12 tackles twice in his last four games — is the one absorbing it.
The other line that mattered
Kubiak on rookie center Trey Zuhn III: "very similar to Kirk" and "best condition athlete I've ever been around."
Comparing a 2026 third-rounder to your starting quarterback is competition language, not praise language. Tyler Linderbaum is a 2022 first-rounder with the job — and Kubiak is publicly opening the door. The implication lands on Ashton Jeanty: 291 rush yards, 22 catches, 215 receiving yards through five games, and no rushing touchdown in any of his last four. A center rotation is not the fix for a back averaging the volume without the payoff, but it's a signal the staff thinks the interior is the problem. Jeanty's touch count stays safe; his scoring expectations don't.
Market check
The Raiders sit at +12500 FanDuel and +15000 DraftKings to win the Super Bowl, with the upcoming game at -3 DraftKings. A protocol absence for a rotational tackle doesn't move any of those numbers, and it shouldn't — this is a depth-chart story, not a line-move story.
Watch the practice report, not the presser. If Hemingway clears protocol, this is a one-week footnote; if he doesn't, track Butler and Fatukasi's snap counts as the honest measure of how much the interior actually lost.
Read the full transcript: Klint Kubiak Press Conference Transcript (2026-10-21)
