Scott Gulbransen
Everyone has an opinion on when Fernando Mendoza takes the wheel in Las Vegas, and almost all of them are wrong.
ESPN’s Lindsey Thiry says the No. 1 overall pick will “expedite the process” and see the field within the first few weeks of the season. CBS Sports mapped out Week 3 at New Orleans as the earliest logical window. Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Ed Graney landed somewhere in the Week 6-7 range, pointing to the home games against Buffalo and the Rams as the right backdrop for a debut. A chunk of the fan base and Silver & Black Pride ran a poll on this, which would apparently be fine with watching Mendoza sit until December. That’s a wide spread for a question that, if you actually look at the schedule and what this organization is trying to build, isn’t that complicated.
Raiders Organization In No Hurry with Fernando Mendoza
Kubiak and John Spytek have been consistent on this all offseason. Neither of them wants a rookie quarterback absorbing bullets in September. That’s why they signed Kirk Cousins. The contract structure tells you everything: an $11.3 million, fully guaranteed, one-year contract. That’s not a mentorship deal. That’s a starter’s contract for a guy expected to play meaningful football. Kubiak’s answer, when pressed on the QB pecking order at OTAs, was, “It’s going to reveal itself.” That wasn’t a deflection. It was a coach telling you exactly what he meant without saying it plainly.
Let Cousins go prove something.
Related: Fernando Mendoza Is Exactly What the Raiders Have Been Missing
So, When Does Mendoza Get His First Start?
The Raiders open at home against Miami, a winnable game. Then they go to the Chargers, then New Orleans, then host Kansas City in Week 4. That’s not a soft landing for a 22-year-old who has never taken an NFL snap under live fire. The stretch from Weeks 4 through 11 includes six teams that made the playoffs last season and four road games in November. Feeding Mendoza into that run makes no football sense.
The more realistic picture is Cousins carrying this team into the bye (the Raiders are off in Week 13) and Mendoza stepping in somewhere in that Week 7-8 window if Cousins is playing below the line or the team is already out of the race. The Jets visit Allegiant Stadium in Week 8. New York just completely overhauled a defense that historically couldn’t generate interceptions. That’s a reasonable first audition.
Thiry’s instinct that Mendoza will push the timeline isn’t wrong on the player; by all accounts, he’s ahead of where anyone expected him to be this early. Kubiak himself said at minicamp that Mendoza has “gotten a ton better, putting the work in.” But being impressive in a helmet-and-shorts minicamp and being ready to start in the NFL are two different conversations and Kubiak knows the difference better than anyone writing hot takes from the outside.
The Raiders have been bad for a long time. There’s no reason to burn a year of Mendoza’s development to find out if Kirk Cousins can go 4-3 in October.
Training camp will tell us more. But the plan is already written.
