Scott Gulbransen
There’s a version of the Raiders’ rookie minicamp recap that focuses on snap counts, drill reps, and how the No. 1 overall pick looked throwing a five-yard out. That story is two days old and not particularly interesting.
Here’s the better one.
On Friday night, after Day 1 wrapped at the Intermountain Health Performance Center, Fernando Mendoza pulled the rookie offensive linemen into a hotel room and asked them to give him snaps. Not for show. Not for the cameras. Mendoza took almost every snap of his college career out of shotgun at Indiana and getting comfortable under center is the most obvious technical hurdle between him and starting Week 1. So he went and worked on it. On a Friday night. After his first NFL practice.
That’s the lead. That’s the whole story, really.
Also worth your attention: the Heisman winner who’s about to sign a contract worth tens of millions of dollars walked into rookie camp and decided he was, in his own words, at “the bottom of the totem pole.”
“In rookie camp, everybody is trying to show out. It’s essentially a tryout for all the rookies, including me,” Mendoza said after Day 2. “Camp invites, UDFAs, any draft picks, we’re always trying to rally together.”
You don’t have to say that. You’re the No. 1 overall pick. The job is yours. But this is who Klint Kubiak and John Spytek thought they were drafting, and through one weekend, they got it right.
The Raiders Locker Room Already Bought In
You can tell what a rookie class thinks of a quarterback by listening to the rest of them talk. Three different teammates, unprompted, used the same kind of language to describe Mendoza this weekend.
Trey Zuhn III, the third-round guard out of Texas A&M and quietly one of the steals of the draft, called him “a guy’s guy.”
“He just connects with everybody. He’s super friendly, easy to talk to,” Zuhn said. “He’s a great leader and I’m happy to be working with him.”
Treydan Stukes, the second-round safety whose locker sits next to Mendoza’s, called him a “super funny guy” and said he loves the way Mendoza attacks his work.
And then there’s Keyron Crawford, the Day 2 defensive end pick. Crawford told a story this weekend that you couldn’t script. After his name was called by the Raiders, his agent immediately called Mendoza. Not the head coach. Not the GM. The quarterback. Just to check in.
“Once my name was called, I was like, ‘You know what, I’m fixing to be around a lot of f—ing good people,'” Crawford said with a grin.
That tells you something about Mendoza’s reputation around the league before he ever took an NFL snap. And it tells you something about the kind of guy the Raiders just made the face of the franchise.
Camaraderie Beyond the Building for Mendoza
The rookies aren’t just clocking out at 5 p.m. and going their separate ways. Both Mendoza and Zuhn mentioned that the offensive players have been continuing playbook walkthroughs at the team hotel after practice. The Friday night under-center session was apparently just the beginning.
“There’s time when we’re just sitting around in the hot tub, cold tub just messing around,” Zuhn said. “But when it’s work time, it’s work time and everybody knows that.”
That’s the right balance for a rookie class. Loose enough to like each other. Serious enough to study together at the hotel.
Now Comes the Hard Part for Mendoza and the Raiders
This was always going to be the easy part. Two days, no veterans, no real install. The volume Mendoza was talking about getting “positively stressed” by ramps up considerably when OTAs open later this month and he’s suddenly in a huddle with Kirk Cousins, Tyler Linderbaum, Ashton Jeanty, and Brock Bowers. Maxx Crosby and Quay Walker will be lining up across from him. The Day 2 standouts have to do this against actual NFL veterans.
But first impressions matter. And the first impression of this rookie class, especially the kid at the top, was about as good as Spytek and Kubiak could have hoped for.
The franchise spent the No. 1 overall pick on a quarterback who, two nights into his NFL career, was in a hotel room running his own walkthroughs to fix his weakness.
That’s the guy you wanted. Through one weekend, it sure looks like that’s the guy you got.
