The Raiders plan to take a patient approach to getting Fernando Mendoza on the field in his first NFL season and based on the opinion of one nation media personality, the team’s approach with Mendoza is a bad idea and it’s all Tom Brady’s fault.
NBC Sports host Mike Florio talked about the Raiders’ quarterback situation after Thursday’s game and Florio seems to believe the team’s decision to keep Mendoza on the sideline to start the season is coming from above head coach Klint Kubiak.
From Florio on Friday’s episode of PFT Live…
“I’m not even going to be that wishy washy about it. I don’t like the idea of the number one overall pick in the draft not playing. This is not a team that has the luxury of a playoff team like the Chiefs did in 2017 when they made Patrick Mahomes the 10th overall pick after trading up from deep in the 20s. They had Alex Smith, They had a team that was playoff capable. They were able to sit Mahomes for a year.
The Raiders need a spark. The Raiders need to get a return on their investment. And the sooner Fernando Mendoza plays, the sooner the game slows down. I hate to think that this number one approach to sitting Fernando Mendoza for maybe a full season is simply because that’s what Tommy wants and I also hate to think that Tommy wants it because he didn’t play as a rookie. I didn’t play as a rookie, so that must be the right approach for everyone…
Just because it works specifically for him, doesn’t mean it’s the right way in today’s NFL. I think in today’s NFL, if you’re going to use that number one overall pick on a quarterback, you better get that quarterback ready to play. He better be a guy who you think can play right away. If he’s not, you need to pick somebody else, you need to trade out of that spot.
My position on it… is very simple. If Fernando Mendoza isn’t ready to walk in the door and become the starter week one, then you shouldn’t have picked him. If you don’t think he’s going to be ready to go week one, why are you picking him? This guy that is going to come in and transform the franchise… I’m talking about a year in and year out franchise quarterback. They haven’t had that since [Ken] Stabler. That’s how long it’s been. We saw how Mendoza played last year in Indiana… I’m concerned that there’s no logic to this other than it’s what Tom Brady wants.”
Florio has a history of being critical of Brady’s role with the Raiders, and understandably so in some cases, but the way Mendoza’s career is being handled this point by the Raiders is a difficult position to defend.
Mendoza played well on Thursday night and so did Kirk Cousins. That’s a good situation for the Raiders to navigate going forward.
If there comes a point where the team is being held back by Cousins as the starter, it’s hard to imagine Kubiak would choose to keep Mendoza on the sideline.
Maybe the best breakdown of the Raiders’ QB room after Thursday’s game came from league insider Charles Robinson…
“Raiders fans have been waiting years for a QB they can attach themselves to, and Mendoza’s status as the No. 1 pick makes restraint nearly impossible. Every Cousins incompletion will be compared with Mendoza’s best throw. Every loss will shorten the public timeline. Every positive preseason series will be treated as evidence that the future should begin immediately.
Kubiak and Spytek can’t make their decision that way. They have to consider whether the offensive line is ready to protect Mendoza, whether the receivers can consistently win and whether the offense around him is stable enough to support his development. Spytek’s point about the entire team being ready for Mendoza to lead it is important. A rookie can be mentally prepared and still be dropped into circumstances that create bad habits, damage confidence or force him to compensate for too many shortcomings around him.
That’s why Cousins remains part of the solution rather than an impediment to it. He gives the Raiders a buffer against impatience. If the line needs time to settle or the receiving hierarchy remains murky beyond Brock Bowers, Cousins can absorb the early turbulence. If the offense functions well and Las Vegas wins games, there’s no need to rush the transition simply because Mendoza had a promising August.
But as Spytek alluded to earlier in camp, the rookie in this equation has agency, too.
If Mendoza continues to improve, the threshold for keeping Cousins on the field will weaken. The veteran won’t merely have to be functional. He will have to play well enough to justify delaying the development of the franchise’s most important player. That’s the part of this that Mendoza can change, one practice and one preseason game at a time.
Maybe it means Mendoza starts in October. Maybe it’s November. Maybe Cousins plays well enough and the Raiders remain competitive enough that the rookie’s first meaningful start doesn’t arrive until much later. There’s still too much football ahead to put a date on it. But in my mind — going all the way back to my conversations early in camp — I’d be surprised if Mendoza sits for the entire season. And if he plays the rest of his preseason snaps the way he did against Arizona, I can’t even rule out that he’s the starter by the end of September.”
x: @raidersbeat
You know that ABSOLUTELY the Raiders are doing it Right if it is the opposite of what Mikey FloNoKnow thinks… He is a loser Hack….
F##k you Florio, until the O line proves they can protect someone then you suit up and play QB. Then when you’re out there getting your a$$ kicked you can tell everyone how right you are.