Raiders Are Developing An Internal Plan To Shift To Mendoza

The Las Vegas Raiders are starting to develop a plan within the organization to make the transition from veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins to rookie Fernando Mendoza, according to a report from Sam Robinson of ProFootballRumors com that referenced material from Vincent Bonsignore of the California Post. 

The news isn’t surprising overall, but it is somewhat shocking that it’s happening so quickly. The Raiders were riding high at 3-0 a couple of weeks ago, but a close loss to the Kansas City Chiefs followed by a blowout debacle against the New England Patriots quickly changed the picture. 

The Raiders are still above .500 at 3-2, but their schedule turned nasty when they played the Chiefs and Patriots, and it’s about to get worse. 

The good news is that the Raiders still play at home, but they also face two of the most powerful offenses in the NFL in the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams, and the Las Vegas Raiders defense was just shredded by quarterback Drake Maye of New England.

There’s still a chance Cousins could still stave off his younger competitor. He’s still tied for second in touchdown tosses, but he was badly exposed against New England, as the Patriots consistently threw blitz looks at him and took away the hot routes Cousins has been relying on. 

That left him with star tight end in Brock Bowers who was blanketed and bracketed, and an inferior group of wide receievers who haven’t been able to get much done so far. 

According to the report, possible debut dates for Mendoza are already being thrown around. The most obvious possibility would be the New York Jets in Week 8, but a road game against the Jets  would create pressure from the New York media that might be something the Raiders want to throw at their top rookie. 

Don’t expect coach Klint Kubiak to buy into any of this publicly. He’s been staid and conservative in nearly all of his media comments to date, and he’ll get his first chance to fix the Raiders’ multitude of problems against Buffalo this Sunday. 

But Kubiak is also facing a talent gap between his roster and that of the opponents the Raiders are now facing. They were able to feast on weak competition to get to 3-0, especially when the Los Angeels Chargers and New Orleans Saints handed the Raiders a couple of wins due to turnover issues, but Kubiak might not be able to close that gap in the first year of the Raiders rebuild.