Fernando Mendoza was drafted by the Las Vegas Raiders to be their savior at quarterback, as the team has struggled to find a stable one for quite some time now. Being the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft and coming to a team that seems to be in a perennial slump placed a lot of pressure on the rookie’s shoulders. But moving from college football to the NFL is never as easy as it looks on paper.

Now that OTAs and mandatory minicamp are done, Mendoza has admitted there’s still plenty of learning to do, and some are already chiming in on exactly where that leaves him heading into training camp.

“He’s not where he needs to be,” Locked On Raiders‘ host ‘Your Boy Q’ said, based on his observations from mandatory minicamp. “I can tell you that by some of the erratic throws. I can tell you by the fact that I’m standing there talking to Ryan Hogue and he says, ‘Yeah, Fernando, he looks like a rookie quarterback today.'”

According to Sam Warren of The Athletic, Kirk Cousins’ reps were with the first-team offense during the OTAs while Mendoza spent most of his time with the rookies. The veteran took the first rep, while Mendoza took the last. Mendoza’s also had some passes being batted away by the defense.

The insider also noted that on the last day of practice, Mendoza was less accurate than what was seen in earlier practice sessions. There were also two times where the rookie star could have been sacked.  Warren also noted that on the last day of practice, Mendoza was not faring well against the first-team defense.

However, this is the very reason why the Raiders seem adamant on Mendoza taking to the field as minimally as possible this season. The transition from college to the NFL is hard, and even the No. 1 pick in the draft has to face the heat. The Raiders are better off with their franchise-QB-in-the-making making mistakes now, than when he’s in front of hundreds of passionate fans.

But because this is Mendoza, there is hope.

“We probably learned this about Fernando before that, that he’s going to work his tail off,” Your Boy Q added. “… [He’s] nowhere close to where he needs to be. He’s nowhere close to where he’ll be by the end of the summer. I promise you that. By the time the season comes around, whether he’s a starting quarterback, backup quarterback, or even the third string, he’s going to be a whole hell of a lot better than he is right now.”

That showed up right away during the rookie minicamp last month. Mendoza was already taking most of his snaps under center, which he rarely did in college. He was honest about where he stood with it, saying he “still has a long way to go” before he perfected this. Mendoza played most of his snaps at shotgun during college. It’s a rough time for the rookie, but he’s owning up to his challenges at this stage.

“I’ve had a little bit of growing pains during OTAs,” Fernando Mendoza told Front Office Sports. “However, I’ve always believed that whatever mistakes I make, let’s not be a repeat offender, as [head] coach [Klint] Kubiak says, and making sure that I’m growing and learning.”

The rookie has never pretended he has it all figured out. The real question now is how Mendoza handles the bumps ahead.