Fernando Mendoza comes across as one of the cleanest NFL prospects to enter the draft in years, but that doesn’t mean his conversations behind closed doors are all G-rated.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Mendoza stepped away from his carefully crafted image on camera at training camp and shared a profanity-laced speech to the team.
“Let me tell you a story, the Raiders have a different person break up the team each day, so just the other day they called up Fernando Mendoza for the first time. And he went up there and spewed out a bunch of profanities,” Schefter said on ESPN’s NFL Countdown on Thursday.
“He went nuts and they were going crazy and they love that he did that. Apparently, it was one of the funniest and most captivating moments of training camp when he broke down the team and gave this [speech].”
Fernando Mendoza still in the mix to start week 1?
Prior to Thursday’s game against the Texans, cameras caught Mendoza sharing another passionate speech with teammates on the field before the Raiders 22-20 comeback win in Houston.
Mendoza wasn’t as sharp against the Texans, but head coach Klint Kubiak stopped short of naming Kirk Cousins his starting quarterback after the game.
“I just don’t think it ever benefits a player to know they have a spot secured,” Kubiak told reporters after the game.
The expectation is that Cousins will be the starting quarterback in the season opener, but it sounds like the door is still cracked open a little for Mendoza to seize the job.
The Raiders host the 49ers on Thursday, and it will be the team’s final preseason game before the regular season opener against the Dolphins on September 13.
x: @raidersbeat
Hell yeah. Be yourself Mendoza, there are way many haters out there. Just go out and prove them wrong! God bless you all and Go Raiders!!!!
Get Jordan Meredith off this team and go sign Mekhi Becton to a one year prove it deal. Protecting Mendoza at all costs needs to be priority #1.