Kirk Cousins Leads Week 1 Race as Raiders Take Patient Approach With Fernando Mendoza

League sources continue to indicate that Raiders veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins is in the lead to start for the team in Week 1, and they do not anticipate a heavy push for first-overall pick Fernando Mendoza to take over for the opening game.

Mendoza was a late bloomer in college who only produced at an elite level in his final season, meaning many of the concepts will still be new to him. 

Sources close to SportsBoom have said the Raiders are still evaluating parts of their offensive line and believe he could benefit from watching Cousins operate the offence, particularly when it comes to the fundamentals of playing under centre rather than primarily from the pistol or shotgun, as he continues to refine those skills in practice.

The Raiders prioritized landing a stop-gap veteran starter who already has strong ties to new head coach Klint Kubiak’s system, Cousins was with him in Minnesota when Kubiak was the offensive coordinator, so not only can he help teach it to Mendoza, but Cousins can also operate it at a high level without needing all of the precious starting practice reps to do so.

“They love Kirk and what he brings to the mix,” is how one person who knows how minority owner Tom Brady (also arguably the greatest QB in NFL history) is thinking about this situation described it. 

Brady is definitely personally invested in this draft pick succeeding where so many young quarterbacks have failed with the Raiders, and he believes, they said, that there is much Mendoza could gain by not necessarily having to take every rep starting Week 1.

Learning Curve

One of the reasons Cousins turned out to be an awkward fit in Atlanta was that the coordinator there leaned very heavily into shotgun passing, while Cousins has been one of the best in the league at under-centre, play-action passing, including selling the threat of the run with the fake.

Cousins has a career passer rating of 107.5 when operating under center and a career passer rating of 111 when utilizing play action (whether under center or in the gun). 

He has a career rating of 91.8 operating out of shotgun, and the Raiders believe he could help them get off to a much faster start than has been the case in recent years.