Fernando Mendoza has become the loudest name in every draft conversation. But just days before the NFL Scouting Combine, he made a decision that sounds awfully familiar and that has the league watching closely to see if the reaction will be too.

“Projected No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza will not throw at the combine this week, per source. He will throw at Indiana’s pro day on April 1st, when the school has multiple pass catchers that Mendoza wants to help showcase,” ESPN’s senior NFL insider Adam Schefter reported on February 22.

Mendoza has made pretty clear why. He wants to perform alongside the same group of players he spent an entire season building chemistry with. So, for Mendoza, it is about showing his best self with his squad.

“At the combine, you’re throwing to different receivers, it’s a whole different thing,” Fernando Mendoza said on the Pat McAfee show. “And I want to make sure I give my guys the best chance. I want to throw at pro day with my guys, with my running backs and be there with the boys.”

​The combine drills are set to begin on Thursday (February 26) in Indianapolis, with quarterbacks scheduled to take the field on Saturday (February 28). But Mendoza will not be among them. He will wait, and the league will come to him on April 1 at Indiana’s pro day.

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It is a decision that is easy to understand when you look at what Mendoza brings to the table. The Indiana quarterback closed out the season with a 72% completion rate, 3,535 passing yards, and a conference-leading 41 touchdowns.

He led the Indiana Hoosiers to a historic 16-0 finish, won the Big Ten Conference title, and capped the season by lifting the national championship trophy. Along the way, he also claimed the Heisman Trophy.

With all of that behind him, Fernando Mendoza’s wanting to walk into pro day with his own guys makes complete sense. He wants to replicate the chemistry that produced those numbers. Now, it would have been a universally celebrated decision if we had not seen this exact script play out before.

In February 2025, then-Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders was preparing to enter the draft as one of the most discussed prospects of his generation. He made the same call: skip the combine throwing drills and save his performance for Colorado’s pro day. And all hell broke loose. ​

ESPN NFL analyst Matt Miller said he was “not a fan” of the decision Sanders made. He argued that Sanders should have taken every opportunity available to showcase his talent in front of evaluators. And that was just the beginning. 

Even though Sanders showed up at the combine for the interview process, it was the conversations behind closed doors that began to define the narrative. NFL insider Josina Anderson reported that teams described Sanders as “brash” and “arrogant.”

The fallout was dramatic. Sanders fell all the way to the 144th pick in the fifth round of the 2025 draft, landing with the Cleveland Browns. A player many thought was a top-five lock became one of the biggest draft-day free-falls in recent memory. So as Mendoza’s decision circulated online this week, fans pulled up their receipts.​

The double standard: “Watch how they don’t treat him like Shedeur Sanders”

The moment Schefter’s report broke, social media did not need long to connect the dots. Fans who had watched the Sanders saga unfold in real time immediately began predicting that Fernando Mendoza’s identical decision would be received in an entirely different light.

“Watch how they don’t treat him like Shedeur Sanders,” one fan wrote bluntly.

Others pushed the point further, sarcastically invoking Sanders’ fifth-round fate as a warning for Mendoza.

“Hey they pushed Shedeur Sanders down to the 144th pick because I didn’t play in the Senior Bowl or throw at the combine and wanted to showcase my WRs to NFL scouts….I hope Mendoza is ready for his draft slide right…. RIGHT,” another fan commented.

To be fair, there is a legitimate football argument to be made that the two situations are not identical. Sanders finished the 2024 season with the Colorado Buffaloes with 353 completions on 477 attempts, a 74% completion rate, 4,134 passing yards, and 37 touchdowns. He led the conference in every one of those categories. He also holds the all-time college football record for career completion percentage at 71.8%. 

But Mendoza arrives with hardware that Sanders did not. Colorado could not win the Big 12 Conference in 2024, and Sanders finished eighth in the Heisman Trophy race that year. Mendoza, on the other hand, won the Heisman outright, won a national championship, and finished 16-0. 

So, the stat difference isn’t a strong argument, as Sanders’ arm talent was undisputed. But one fan made that contrast the centerpiece of his argument against the double-standard narrative.

“Why would they treat him like Shedeur? One is a Heisman-winning CFP National Champion, and the other is… Shedeur Sanders. There is literally zero comparison between the two, except Mendoza WASN’T throwing to one of the greatest college athletes of all time,” wrote another fan. 

Another layer to the Sanders conversation is his family background. His father is Hall of Famer Deion Sanders. Plus, his complexion. Both these reasons popped up as factors that shaped the league’s perception.

“Watch the nfl expose there self watch how they praise Mendoza for this and say how smart it is and how much he a team player and loves his teammates but last year THEY KILLED SHEDEUR SANDERS FOR THE EXACT SAME THING 🤣🤣🤣 it’s crazy when your skin tone a different COlOR 🥷” one fan wrote.

Moreover, Sanders was not the only quarterback in the 2025 class who skipped combine drills. Cam Ward also drew scrutiny for elements of his draft process, though Sanders absorbed the lion’s share of the criticism. 

“Cam Ward but mostly Shedeur Sanders was heavily criticized for skipping the combine, and at that time, he was a lock for the first round even before he met teams at the combine. He was called arrogant and entitled for doing so, but Mendoza is called smart and not scared to compete,” added another fan.

Whether NFL scouts and media analysts hold Mendoza to the same standard they applied to Sanders remains to be seen. But one thing looks clear already: Mendoza is not sliding in this draft.

The 2025 class at quarterback was historically loaded, which gave evaluators options and leverage. The 2026 class is a different story. Mendoza stands alone at the top. The Raiders need him. And that changes everything.​