HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — The eyes of Las Vegas Raiders fans now turn to Fernando Mendoza — finally.
He became the Raiders’ starting quarterback after the club traded Kirk Cousins to Minnesota just ahead of Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline. Fourth-year pro Aidan O’Connell, who has 17 career starts, also is on the roster.
“Thank you Raider Nation!” Cousins posted on social media along with a photo of him and Mendoza walking together. “Go get em @fernandomendoza.”
Raiders fans have been looking forward to this moment since it became clear at the end of last season Las Vegas would get the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft. Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy and led Indiana to a national championship, winning the title with Raiders owner Mark Davis, part owner Tom Brady and general manager John Spytek watching from the sideline.
“We’re all kind of staring the future in the face here with Fernando, and Kirk was open with that when we got him,” Spytek said. “We had to basically decide if we want to go forward (with Cousins) here over the last eight games, or do we want to take what Minnesota’s offering? Ultimately, we decided to do that.”
The team has been searching for a quarterback to lead the once-proud franchise back to the glory days that included winning three Lombardi Trophies. A fourth nearly came in the 2002 season when the Raiders last appeared in the Super Bowl.
It’s been a long, dry stretch since. Two postseason appearances. No playoff victories.
Whether Mendoza and his strong right arm will be the one to break the drought is the question that hovers over the organization and almost certainly will define the legacies of Spytek and first-year head coach Klint Kubiak.
Both raved about the high-level practices that Mendoza put together in recent weeks “where we really had to make a hard decision today,” Spytek said.
“His work habits also allow us to make this trade because we feel that he’s ready to go and we’re excited to have him take the ball for a game here on Sunday,” Kubiak said.
Mendoza will be challenged immediately Sunday at home against defending Super Bowl championship Seattle. A road trip follows to Denver, which played in last season’s AFC championship game and is competing with Kansas City for the AFC West title.
“This in no way signifies we are punting on the season or looking forward to 2027,” Spytek said. “We have a big game this week against the defending world champs, and we intend to attack it like we would any week.”
The Raiders (4-5) ranked eighth with 26.4 points per game with Cousins at QB. That despite a run game that is second worst with a 71.3-yard average.
Cousins signed a deal with a $20 million guarantee — Atlanta picked up $8.7 million of that — as a veteran placeholder until it was time to give Mendoza the call. Cousins repeatedly said the best quarterback should play, be it him or Mendoza.
Given that Cousins clearly was the better quarterback in training camp and then followed with a regular season in which he threw 20 touchdown passes, second to the 23 of the Bengals’ Joe Burrow.
That production gave Raiders management more freedom to bring Mendoza along slowly, and Kubiak said that was the correct approach with the rookie.
“I think with the right role model, that would accelerate his growth,” Kubiak said, “and we had the right role model.”
Now that the trade has been made, it’s on Mendoza to show if he is indeed the quarterback the Raiders and their fans have long waited to see.
“Everything we’ve asked him to do in practice, I think he’s exceeded those expectations,” Kubiak said. “We all know that live bullets Sunday is far different from practice. However, he’s showed us that he’s ready, not only physically but mentally.”
___
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Mark Anderson, The Associated Press