After a mercurial and historic season for the Hoosiers, 22-year-old Fernando Mendoza is now just days away from entering his first season in the NFL. Expectations are high, as they always are for a Heisman Trophy winner, but there is also a sense of patience.
Mendoza, as we know, landed in Las Vegas as the No. 1 overall draft pick, just the second-ever Indiana Hoosier and the first since Corbett Davis in 1938 to get the accolade. He joins a Raiders organization with plenty of ambition shown by its ownership, which includes Tom Brady, but one where fans have had to be patient.
The Raiders won just three games last season, and just four the year before; they have not had a winning season since 2021, and they have had four different head coaches in that time, including a new one, Klint Kubiak, for this season. So, it’s pretty clear that Mendoza is joining an organization in a state of flux.
The Raiders Have a Big Rebuild
The arrival of Mendoza did not wave a magic wand over the Raiders’ NFL 2026 season odds, either. They remain rank outsiders for the Super Bowl and, in truth, any improvement on the three wins recorded last season would be seen as a success. It’s not all doom and gloom though, as the Raiders were busy in the offseason, bringing in veteran help like Tyler Linderbaum. However, there was a lack of blockbuster trades, again stressing the point that Raiders fans must have patience.
For Mendoza, the most interesting piece of business for the Raiders in the offseason was the signing of Kirk Cousins. Kubiak has remained more tight-lipped than most NFL coaches on his starting quarterback, but there is an almost-consensus that Cousins will get the nod for Week 1. Cousins is a veteran with 171 starts (regular season and postseason) as a QB since 2012. He’s not the spectacular starter the Raiders fans crave, but he is a fairly sure pair of hands that could help ease what fans hope is their franchise player for the next decade and beyond into life in the big leagues.
Indeed, while many fans hope that their rookie quarterbacks will storm out of the blocks, as Jayden Daniels did in 2024, it is often the case that a more pragmatic approach applies, even when we are talking about generational talents. Mendoza’s main goal will be to get chances to shine and, eventually, knock Cousins out of that starter’s position. It may come sooner; it may come later.
Mendoza Still Has Much to Learn
We have had a taste of Mendoza in preseason, and, well, it looks like he needs seasoning. Against the Houston Texans, in particular, there was a sense that he had much to learn when coming against strong and savvy defenses. He threw for 86 yards in that game, completing 8 out of 15 passes. He looked hurried throughout.
In the end, we just don’t know how things will pan out. The Raiders look like a good fit for Mendoza, as the rebuild is being designed to happen over years, and which might help him develop while the right tools grow around him. In Kubiak, they have an offensive-minded coach that could get the best out of Mendoza, provided that he stays in post longer than his immediate predecessors.
