Fernando Mendoza has the full confidence of the Las Vegas Raiders organization. Mendoza was the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, but the coaching staff gave the starting job to veteran Kirk Cousins.
The Raiders traded Cousins to the Minnesota Vikings at the trade deadline Tuesday, and Mendoza was named starter.
Raiders general manager John Spytek and head coach Klint Kubiak said Tuesday that Mendoza has done all he needed to do to earn their confidence for the rest of the season.
“We did want to say and confirm that Fernando will be the starting quarterback going forward. It’s something that he’s worked very hard for since the moment he walked into this building,” Spytek said at a press conference Tuesday.
“He passed every test. I want to stop short of saying he’s earned it, but he put us in a position where we had to make a really hard decision today, with his growth as a person, as a teammate, as a leader, as a quarterback.”
Spytek assured Raiders fans that the decision did not mean that the team was “punting” on the season or planning to compete in 2027. The Raiders are 4–5 and still in the playoff hunt midway through the season.
“We have a big game this week against the defending world champs [the Seattle Seahawks], and we intend to attack it like we would any week,” Spytek said. “That’s expected of us, that’s expected from ownership, from Raider Nation, from this entire building.”
Kubiak has been on the field with Mendoza since he was drafted in April and has been impressed with his growth.
“Fernando has [done] everything we’ve asked him to do in practice. I think he’s exceeded those expectations, and we all know that, you know, live bullets on Sunday is far different from practice,” he said.
“However, he’s showed us that he’s ready, not only physically, but mentally. He’s up there studying right now like he would any other game, but he puts a lot of work in. His teammates know how prepared he is. It’s not just lip service, but he has shown it on the practice field.”
Mendoza will be thrown into a gauntlet. The Seahawks have the league’s top-ranked defense in total yardage and passing yardage.
After that, the Raiders will visit division rival Denver Broncos, whose vaunted defense comes off a bye week.
The Raiders then go to Cleveland to take on the Browns, who rank sixth in passing defense. After their week 13 bye, they play a 3-game home stand against the Los Angeles Chargers, Broncos, and Tennessee Titans, then finish the season on the road against the Arizona Cardinals and Kansas City Chiefs.
Kubiak said he has faced enough adversity against the Raiders’ relentless pass rush to be confident in his ability to handle it.
“Every day he’s going against a live pass rush with [defensive end] Maxx [Crosby] and with [edge rusher] Kwity Paye and [linebacker] Quay Walker, and [LB Nakobe Dean] coming up the A-gap,” he said.
“So he’s got a lot of game speed reps, and we just feel that I see him progress in his accuracy, in his total command of our system, his ability to get in and out of a huddle, operate two-minute drills, situational football … his most important piece of production is his ability to throw a football accurately and make good decisions. And I’ve seen those two things really jump out.”
Kubiak noted there would likely be ups and downs in Mendoza’s first start, as expected for a rookie.
He approaches the offense differently in both physical ability and preferred style of play. Kubiak only expects him to be a “point guard” and do his one-eleventh, leaning on the rest of the offense to do the rest.
