Kirk Cousins isn’t winning the Raiders’ quarterback competition. He already won it. Back in April. Before a single OTA rep got logged.
That’s the part Klint Kubiak keeps talking around. Since the Raiders took Fernando Mendoza No. 1 overall, Kubiak has framed the QB room as a genuine three-way fight between Cousins, Mendoza, and Aidan O’Connell. Nice sentiment. Doesn’t match the paperwork.
Cousins is guaranteed $20 million for the 2026 season — $8.7 million carried over from the Falcons, another $1.3 million from Las Vegas, plus $10 million more waiting on him in March 2027. Tom Pelissero had the breakdown before most Raiders fans finished their coffee:
New Raiders QB Kirk Cousins will now make $20 million fully guaranteed for playing the 2026 season, per sources.
That’s double the $10M guarantee Cousins had left on his Falcons contract, and puts him in line to potentially be the Week 1 starter in Las Vegas.
Here’s how it… pic.twitter.com/QhpF8pE0o5
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) April 2, 2026
Eleventh straight season Cousins has landed a fully guaranteed contract. That’s leverage, built over a decade: the kind of number that tells you who a front office actually trusts with the job, regardless of what gets said at the podium.
Then there’s the practice field, which is even less subtle than the money. During OTAs and mandatory minicamp, Cousins took every rep with the first team while Mendoza worked with the twos and threes. That’s not an open competition. That’s a depth chart with a press conference attached.
Kubiak isn’t lying, to be clear. He’s coaching. “I never ask anybody to be a mentor,” he said this offseason. “If you’re on the roster, it’s to play and play really well for the team. That’s the quarterback’s job; all three of them are to get ready to play and win games at a high level.” Every word of that is true. It’s also not the same thing as saying the job is actually up for grabs.
He tipped his real hand talking about Cousins directly: “He’s a guy who has run this offense before, but he’s also been in a lot of systems. He can still play, still move, and still throw the football really well.” That’s starter talk, not audition tape.
Albert Breer wrote that Mendoza winning the job outright is “probably unlikely,” and even Mendoza sounds like he knows it. Asked about the competition, he talked about pushing Cousins to be better, not beating him out. Fifty-seven million guaranteed as the No. 1 pick, and the rookie is playing this like an apprenticeship. Smart. Also telling.
O’Connell exists in this too — Kubiak swears he’s “had a phenomenal offseason” and won’t be counted out — but let’s not pretend he’s the story here.
The real question through camp is whether Mendoza actually pushes Cousins in team drills, closes the gap, and makes Kubiak sweat a decision he’s already made. That’s worth watching. The “open competition” talk isn’t.
