Raiders Set to Ease Fernando Mendoza In as Kirk Cousins Expected to Start Week 1

The Raiders have loved everything they have seen out of first-overall pick Fernando Mendoza in the early stages of their spring practices, and his mentality and work ethic continue to make a strong impression, by all accounts.

But that’s also quite unlikely to alter their prescribed method of bringing the rookie along, team and league sources said, as rookie head coach Klint Kubiak also gets on-the-job training. 

There will be far less chatter about how good veteran Kirk Cousins looks with the team, with that to be expected, but he has been exactly the kind of winning stopgap Las Vegas envisioned when it landed him, and we continue to hear that Week 1 is very likely to be the domain of Cousins.

The Brady Way

The Raiders waited as long as they did to secure a veteran to assume that position because Cousins was of particular interest to them, knowing they were going to draft Mendoza with their first pick all along. 

Minority owner Tom Brady is heavily involved in this process, Brady, albeit as a sixth-round pick, didn’t play right away his rookie year, Patrick Mahomes (the standard at QB since Brady retired) didn’t play his rookie year until the final game and the Raiders will likely want to see how their offensive line looks with Cousins under center for at least a few games before making the inevitable switch.

“Cousins isn’t there just to hold a clipboard for 17 weeks,” as one NFL personnel executive whose team was involved in the quarterback market this offseason, put it.

Even Brady’s former team, New England, did not start Drake Maye right away when he was a top draft pick, letting him sit behind Jacoby Brissett for a few games. Maye was runner-up for MVP in his first full season at QB.

Mendoza’s role is built into the gambling markets, who have him projected around 2500 yards, with the expectation that he will not be starting every game. His numbers are by far the lowest of the 23 quarterbacks available on the board.