Mendoza Named Raiders Starter As GM Talks Trade Follow-Up

The Las Vegas Raiders started the Fernando Mendoza Era on Wednesday according to Ryan McFadden of ESPN, as they immediately named the rookie quarterback their starter and No. 1 at the position after trading veteran QB Kirk Cousins to the Minnesota Vikings for a third-round pick at the trade deadline on Tuesday. 

Mendoza’s first start will happen on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks, and it will be his second appearance after the season after a garbage-time drive against the New England Patriots in which he completed 6-of-8 short passes with the Raiders on the short end of what became a 45-17 loss. 

GM John Spytek said Mendoza “passed every test” in the days before the trade, and according to recent reports he’s been exellent in practice. 

Take that with the appropriate grain of salt. The Raiders have an awful defense and no running game, so when the opportunity to get a third-round pick for Cousins fell into their lap, they pulled the trigger and took it. 

Spytek added that this doesn’t mean the Raiders are “punting on the season,” to use McFadden’s description, with the translation being that they’re hoping for the best against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday and the Denver Broncos on the road the week after that. 

What we don’t know is what role Cousins’ turnover-plagued performance against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday played in all this, but it barely matters at this point. The Raiders are a 4-5 team pretending to have playoff aspirations, but it would take a miraculous run to produce anything close to that given all the roster holes. 

Coach Klint Kubiak said that Mendoza “exceeded” the team’s expectations in practice, which also may or may not matter. He’s about to face a Seattle defense that dominates against young quarterbacks, but we do know that the rookie QB will be prepared to whatever extent that’s possible. 

It’s going to be fun to watch, at least initially before reality sets in, and it was clearly time to make this move. The Raiders probably would have preferred to wait until after this tough stretch of their schedule, but the timing of the deadline and Minnesota’s desperation dictated this move. 

Mendoza will now be tasked with making the same kinds of smart decisions Cousins was making until Sunday’s 38-17 loss in San Francsisco, and that’s how he’ll be graded by Kubiak in this week’s game.