Tom Brady is back in the middle of a Super Bowl push, and this time he’s not just rooting from the sidelines. He’s actively helping steer the Las Vegas Raiders toward one, with Fernando Mendoza at the center of that effort.
For Mendoza, the setup is as big as it gets. The former Indiana Hoosiers star - now described as the 2026 NFL first overall pick - arrives with plenty on his plate after a five-year drought ended with a rare double: he became the first player to win the Heisman Trophy while also winning the College Football Playoff National Championship.
He also led the greatest program turnaround during his time at Indiana. Now he’s trying to handle the jump to the NFL with Brady in his corner.
That relationship clearly means a lot to the rookie quarterback, but Mendoza says he’s had to adjust how he sees the five-time Super Bowl winner. Speaking to Grant Gordon of NFL.com, he said, "It's surreal.
However, you know, he's been such a great resource and he's been, from a young age, he's been a big idol of mine and then now it's, OK, Tom is a human being. Yes, he's an exceptional human being, but he's a human being.
So, take what you can, learn from him, and make sure that you value that relationship, rather than looking at him with googly eyes every second,"
Mendoza added, "He wants to be treated as a human being and he is, like I said, an exceptional human being, and he's someone that has a lot of characteristics and values that I look up to as a football player and as a character outside of football. But having that relationship is surreal and if you would have told me 10 years ago, I never would have believed you,"
The contrast between the two quarterbacks is hard to miss. Brady came into the league as a sixth-round pick, 199th overall in the 2000 NFL Draft, after four seasons at Michigan and a national championship there as a backup in 1997. Mendoza’s path looks very different: he transferred from Cal to Indiana before landing with the Raiders as the top pick.
Brady isn’t the only experienced voice in Mendoza’s ear, either. Kirk Cousins, who is also competing for the Raiders starting quarterback job, is set to help guide him through the NFL. The pressure is obvious, but Mendoza’s support system is in place as he tries to turn talent and mindset into something much bigger.
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From the Raiders perspective, the ripple effect is less about Denver than the division-wide chessboard around it, where every staff decision and roster move gets watched closely. Las Vegas also had its own quarterback-room storyline surface, with Fernando Mendoza framing his approach as competition alongside Kirk Cousins and the rest of the group rather than a straight one-on-one battle, a small but telling sign of how these summer jobs are being defined. [Read more 🡒]
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The Raiders have spent training camp balancing the present and the future, with Kirk Cousins installed as the starter while first overall pick Fernando Mendoza gets his early education behind him. For a team opening against the Miami Dolphins, the plan is clear enough: let the veteran handle the immediate pressure, and let the rookie absorb as much as he can while the staff works to bring him along at a steady pace.
Mendoza has already shown why Las Vegas is willing to be patient. He has looked promising in practice, even if he knows there is still a long way to go, especially with the playbook. Cousins is expected to help in that process as a mentor, and the bigger question now is not whether Mendoza has talent, but how quickly he can close the gap and make the Raiders revisit the quarterback picture. [Read more 🡒]