Fernando Mendoza is the future for the Las Vegas Raiders. But whether it will be in the immediate future is unknown.
According to NFL Insider Ian Rapoport, he believes that if Mendoza plays well early on, he could force the Raiders to make him their starting quarterback next season.
“We have seen this in the past, where [teams] have said this in the past, ‘We’re gonna sit this rookie, probably not going to play, he’s going to learn. ‘What if Mendoza hits the ground running so fast, and so well, that they say, ‘This guy has to play?” Rapoport said on the NFL Insiders show on NFL Network. “Might not be game one, but it could be earlier in the season, and if that is the case, for the Raiders, that also is excellent news.”
The days of quarterbacks spending most of the year as a backup have become a foreign concept in the NFL, as the last time a quarterback was taken No.1 overall was in 2018, when the Cleveland Browns selected Baker Mayfield.
Mayfield took over for an injured Tyrod Taylor and ran with the job and never looked back.
Since Mendoza was taken No.1 overall by the Raiders during last years NFL Draft, the expectation has been he will serve as a backup to Kirk Cousins, who will be a mentor to Mendoza.
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Mendoza is coming off a historic season at Indiana, where he was crowned as the winner of the Heisman Trophy and also helped lead the Hoosiers to their first College Football National Championship, after throwing 3,535 yards, 41 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions, while completing 72% of his passes.
If Mendoza can show the Raiders the same type of success he had at Indiana and becomes the starting quarterback of the team, Rapoport said it could make things a little bit awkward in the Las Vegas quarterback room, but it would also be good news, as the number one pick would be “Exactly who they’d hope he would be.”
