Raiders Have High Expectations For Mendoza, Even Against Seahawks

The Las Vegas Raiders are changing quarterbacks after trading Kirk Cousins to the MInnesota Vikings on Tuesday at the trade deadline, and they have big expectations for rookie Fernando Mendoza. They’ve been talking him up since the draft, and now that he’s about to make his first NFL start, the hype is shifting into overdrive.  

GM John Spytek has been the one fueling the hype, saying that shifting to Mendoza ““in no way signifies that we are punting on this season or looking forward to 2027.” 

As Sam Warren of The Athletic pointed out, that comment is being applied to a Raiders squad that’s lost five of six games and didn’t make any acquisitions before the trade deadline. It’s also being applied to a defense that can’t stop anyone right now, and an offense that doesn’t have a running game. 

No matter. The hype game is about hope and expectations, and Spytek knows it. But coach Klint Kubiak has more reasonable and modest expectations that include  as he listed his leading the offense and the “operation,” and to be the leader of the team. 

Even that won’t be easy, though. The Seattle Seahawks defense will throw things at Mendoza that he’s never seen before, but at least Kubiak knows what they might be from his time in Seattle. 

The stats Warren used to back this up have the Seahawks defense allowing a league-low 217 yards per game and 134 passing yards per game in four games against first-year starter since coach Mike McDonald took over in 2024. 

Kubiak added that he expects Mendoza to play at a “high level,” but we still don’t know what that is exactly. It will probably include a low-risk approach to protect the rookie, but beyond that all bets are off given the lack of a running game. 

The two things Mendoza brings to the table, per Warren, are an ability to make downfield throws and the mobility to extend plays, quite possibly while he’s running for his life. Cousins no longer had the arm strength to make longer throws, and he certainly wasn’t mobile. 

Kubiak says Mendoza has shown the ability to do this in practice, and that’s where we’re going to learn the most. There’s a big gap between performing well in practice versus doing it against a tough defense like Seattle’s, and we’re about to find out just how large that gap really is.