The Las Vegas Raiders are planning to snag a quarterback right at the start of the draft, and most signs point toward Fernando Mendoza. What makes Mendoza special is his performance from the 2025 season, including 3,535 yards for 41 touchdowns and 6 interceptions, with a 72 percent completion percentage. Despite his impressive performance, the team’s HC Klint Kubiak doesn’t seem willing to start the QB in week one.

“Ideally, you don’t want him to start from day one, but that’s a perfect world. Sometimes they have to start from day one.” Coach Kubiak shared his opinion about starting Mendoza. You’d love him to be able to learn behind somebody. That’s in a perfect world. It doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes they have to play from Day 1, and it’s our job as coaches to get them ready to go. I think it does help the player if they can sit behind a mature adult and watch how they run the show.”

Following the release of Derek Carr in early 2023, the Raiders have struggled to put up a decent performance with multiple changes at QB1, including Jimmy Garoppolo, Aidan O’Connell, Gardner Minshew, Geno Smith, and Kenny Pickett.

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From here on, the Raiders front office believes that pairing the Heisman winner with Klint Kubiak’s offensive expertise is the key to fixing years of roster mistakes. Considering Kubiak was the offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks before he replaced Pete Carroll, the timing also seems right. However, the new head coach firmly believes in not starting the rookie QB so early in the season.

However, Kubiak is also a realist, acknowledging that if the team needs Mendoza to start Week 1, they’ll pull the trigger. Basically, the HC is keeping his plans flexible and isn’t ruling anything out just yet.

Considering Mendoza’s resume, the chances of starting him are hard to ignore. Besides a stellar 2025 performance, the QB also led the Hoosiers to an undefeated 16-0 record and their first national title.

He has also demonstrated his commitment to the Raiders by studying the Raiders’ playbook with former coach Brian Griese, as reported by Daniel Jeremiah on The Pat McAfee Show:

“Fernando Mendoza is working with Brian Griese right now, and it’s not so much that they’re working on footwork. They’re installing the Raiders’ offense. He’s full speed ahead. This is the same thing that happened with [Joe] Burrow, where you can use this time to really try and learn the core verbiage and concepts along with an offense.”

The Raiders officials also traveled to Indiana for Mendoza’s pro day on Wednesday. Based on the quarterback’s performance there, his final report card will be evaluated before the 2026 NFL Draft.

What is next for the Raiders and Fernando Mendoza?

A group of Raiders executives and coaches was present to watch Mendoza work out and host him for dinner. During the Indiana pro day, the Heisman Trophy-winning Indiana quarterback put up an impressive performance for the scouts. 

Speaking about his performance, the QB feels that it went great. “You know quarterbacks have passed, have done shorter pro days than that. However, I just wanted to make sure everybody could showcase their abilities in front of all 32 NFL teams and really run routes that are applicable to the timing we’re going to be running in the NFL.”

During the February NFL scouting combine, Mendoza skipped the workout. On Wednesday, the former Hoosiers QB only participated in the throwing session and threw short, deep, and medium-range passes, targeting receivers to the left, right, and over the middle. Though Mendoza looked fully capable against any talented pass rusher, he also added that he needs to put in more work ahead of the season.

“I’m putting all of my efforts toward just trying to be the best quarterback possible for the season,” he said. “But I know at the next level, there’s going to be a lot more snaps under center, and that’s a big adjustment. I need to get used to that and just the nature of the game. Not only that, the hash [marks] are more condensed and the speed of the game is faster. So, all those things I look forward to learning.”

Even though Kubiak and general manager John Spytek have been sort of keeping their cards hidden, what is clear, however, is that the team intends to use its first draft pick on Mendoza.