Fernando Mendoza is the Fernando Mendoza Raiders starter in everything but name. -2000 odds. The Raiders finished 3-14. They have the Heisman winner who threw 41 touchdowns at 71.5% completion and dragged Indiana to a national title. This isn’t a mystery.
But the Raiders are Raiders, so we need the whole song and dance first.
Kirk Cousins signed a $20M deal to be the “veteran mentor.” The Raiders’ portion: $1.3 million. Atlanta is eating the other $8.7M to get him off their books — the same organization that signed Cousins for $180M, immediately drafted Michael Penix, and burned an entire season figuring out what everyone already knew. The Raiders looked at that disaster and said, we’ll take the sequel. The “mentor” narrative falls apart when the mentor costs you less than a backup lineman.
Coach Kubiak already told you exactly how this ends: “I think ideally you don’t want him to start from Day 1. You’d love him to be able to learn behind somebody… sit behind a mature adult and watch how they run the show.”
Cousins, to his credit, didn’t even pretend: “The best player needs to play. If that’s not me, I don’t want to be out there.” He also said Mendoza is “much ahead of me” at his stage. The veteran mentor is out here lobbying for his own benching. Appreciated.
Raiders fans have watched Garoppolo get hurt, O’Connell get benched, Minshew hold the clipboard, Geno Smith start a full season and go 3-14, and Ridder collect a check across three seasons of organized chaos at QB. The organization has never once been able to commit to a starter. The “let him sit and learn” framing is institutional reflex at this point — a way to avoid accountability when the rookie struggles out of the gate. Every draft tracker has Mendoza at #1 overall and the Raiders are still running the mentor script.
https://x.com/RapSheet/status/2041660749051732043
Mendoza is not attending the draft in Pittsburgh. He’s watching from Miami with his family, his mother Elsa by his side. That’s his thing. He doesn’t need the stage. He just needs the snaps.
Start him Week 1. The clipboard era costs $1.3M. Waste of a roster spot.