Las Vegas Raiders have some fairly strong opinions about Kirk Cousins, Fernando Mendoza and Aidan O'Connell.
The Las Vegas Raiders have a fairly specific plan at quarterback, and it’s been well-reviewed by experts and media types for the most part. But Sam Warren of The Athletic did a very different take in his recent fan poll that showed the answers to a variety of questions, and the second part that just came out is about the quarterbacks.
For starters, Raider Nation is on board with Kirk Cousins as the veteran starter for Week 1. Warren had 92.1 percent of Raiders fans in favor of Cousins, and he said it was somewhat surprising to see such overwhelming support for Cousins.
But the Raiders have also botched several quarterback situations in recent years, as Warren himself noted, and the Kubiak/Cousins combination is getting a clear vote of confidence so far.
The confidence in Cousins going forward is a very different matter, however. The two overwhelming choices in this category were “Confident” and “Neutral,” with the former drawing 46.1 percent of the vote and the latter getting 43.1 percent.
This reflects the reality of Cousins’ career to date. He’s a journeyman whose chief claim to fame is that he’s gotten paid at every stop, including Las Vegas. The Raiders aren’t paying lot given that Cousins is now pushing 40, but fans understand there’s a low ceiling here that probably won’t be exceeded.
Cousins has stated that he’s healthy coming off an Achilles tear that’s made him even less mobile than he was when he was simply a pocket passer, but that doesn’t mean all that much. As Warren noted, “many respondents still appear unmoved.”
The key question was all about when Mendoza should start, and not surprisingly the responses here were all over the map. The two possible answers that covered the first six weeks of the season drew just over 10 percent of the vote, while Weeks 7-12 drew 29.4 percent of the vote, after the Week 13 bye got 36.6 percent and “in 2027” had 23.3 percent.
There’s some obvious hedging and overlap in the way the question was phrased, but it is surprising to see a fan base that’s not frothing to see the new rookie get in the game for so long.
The final question was about trading backup Aidan Quinn, and the surprise here was that 39.1 percent don’t think the Raiders should trade him at all. That was the leading answer by a good amount, which perhaps indicates a hidden skepticism about this plan as a whole.
