The Fernando Mendoza era is officially underway in Las Vegas, and the mood around the Raiders was impossible to miss Wednesday at Intermountain Health Performance Center.
There was a buzz before practice even got rolling, the kind that comes when a franchise finally turns the page and hands the keys to a new quarterback. Mendoza has spent months waiting for this shot, and now it belongs to him as QB1.
The move became official Tuesday when the Raiders sent starting quarterback Kirk Cousins to the Minnesota Vikings for a third-round pick in 2027. But that deal was not a signal that Las Vegas is easing off the gas in 2026. If anything, head coach Klint Kubiak and general manager John Spytek made it clear the expectation is to keep pushing.
“Our expectation is for him to lead the offense, to lead the operation and to go play a game here Sunday and be the leader of the team,” said Kubiak on Tuesday.
That is a heavy load for any quarterback, and especially for one stepping into his first NFL start. Mendoza knows the spotlight is brighter now, but he’s also been here before in a different form. At Indiana, he teamed with Curt Cignetti to help turn the Hoosiers from the program with the most losses in Division I football history into national championship glory, a run that earned him a Heisman Trophy and first overall pick status.
For a Raiders team trying to climb back toward the level its history demands, that background matters. Mendoza has already shown he can help drag a team out of the shadows and into the national conversation.
“I believe starting an NFL game, it is a new step, but a whirlwind, no,” said Mendoza about his preparation for his first NFL start.
“Coach Kubiak, [offensive coordinator Andrew] Janocko and [quarterbacks] Coach [Mike] Sullivan, everyone in the quarterback room including Kirk have done a fantastic job in aiding my development. Can’t thank them enough.”
The challenge in front of him is real, though, and the schedule is not doing him any favors. Mendoza’s first start comes against the Seattle Seahawks, who own the NFL’s top defense by allowing just 244.2 yards per game.
Minnesota is second at 280. Then come the Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns, both tied for fourth in the league with 26 sacks.
After the bye, the path lightens with the Los Angeles Chargers, Tennessee Titans and Arizona Cardinals. But these next three games will tell the story of how Mendoza handles adversity and how quickly he settles in from week to week.
“This is a fantastic opponent,” said Mendoza about the Seahawks. “However, I have so much trust in the coaching staff, in the front office, in my teammates and the leaders of this team to go out there and best support everybody’s 1-11, so we do our job with the best ability.”
For now, he is the man running the show. The huddle is his, the locker room is his, and Wednesday’s signs pointed to a transition that should go smoothly. Mendoza was breaking the huddle, teammates were speaking highly of him, and the early chemistry looked natural.
There are small details, too, that help tell the story of how he’s fitting in, from continuing Cousins’s In-n-Out tradition to finding common ground with teammates through faith. Mendoza said the biggest lesson so far has been simple.
“It was a great lesson that I learned early on is try to be yourself,” said Mendoza on how he was able to mesh with the Raiders locker room as seamlessly as he has. “We have so many great teammates in here, and I can’t thank all of them enough for how they’ve brought me in.
Those are my brothers, and I’m so excited to go to war with my brothers and be able to fight every single play and do everything I possibly can to help us.”
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