The Raiders are expected to go into the 2026 season with Kirk Cousins at the top of the quarterback depth chart, and based on reports from OTAs last week, it sounds like Cousins will be up to the challenge.
Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers noted that Cousins is displaying improved mobility and appears to be at his best since an Achilles injury cut his 2023 season short.
“I’ll tell you right now, it’s only June, and things will be different when the pads come on, not that the quarterbacks are going to be getting hit or anything. We’ll see what it looks like in training camp, [but] Kirk Cousins looks good,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show.
“He looks like he’s moving around… He’s coming off the Achilles, but now he’s a couple of years removed from that. I believe, just like every other injury is pretty serious, ACL, Achilles, all those other things, a couple of years removed, you’re a lot better. When we saw him playing for the Falcons in Allegiant State Week 15 against the Raiders, he was a statue. He couldn’t move. He didn’t look like he had anything behind his throw. He doesn’t look like that guy. He’s rolling out. He’s bootlegging. He looks like he’s a lot better, in a lot better shape.”
Additionally, Myers thinks Cousins is in a great place with Klint Kubiak’s offense.
“I was standing on the sideline on Tuesday, the first day of mandatory mini camp, and Ryan Hoag, former Raiders wide receiver back in 2003… was standing next to me and he was hearing the play calls. And he’s a guy who also spent time in Minnesota. He was like, ‘Those are the same play calls that we ran back in the day,'” Myers said.
“He recognized everything… ‘This is what’s going to happen next. Oh, hey, this is what’s going to happen.
Okay, that play call is this.’ So that familiarity with the offense is the reason I bring that up. The familiarity with the offense that Kirk Cousins has is a step in the right direction and is ahead of both Aiden O’Connell and Fernando Mendoza.”
“I honestly believe as much as everyone’s talking about win loss total for the Raiders, the best opportunity and the best chance for the Raiders to win is what Kirk Cousins behind center right now.”
As Myers pointed out, training camp and preseason will go a long way towards determining the depth chart at quarterback, but every indication, for now, is that the organization wants Cousins to seize the job for as long as possible.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport has been reporting from the day Mendoza was drafted that the plan in Las Vegas is to allow the rookie quarterback time to develop on the sideline.
“What the Raiders want is for Kirk Cousins to go out there and do everything he possibly can to make sure that Fernando Mendoza does not see the field,” Rapoport said on Friday.
“[They want] Cousins to play as well as he possibly can, to stay healthy, to give them a chance to win, and allow Mendoza the time necessary for him to [develop] and get a chance to go out there when he is ready to play. It is okay if they are not best friends. It is okay if the coaches do the mentorship, not the players. None of this is Kirk Cousins’ job and I appreciate that he decided to tell us this so we don’t talk about phony narratives.”
How long will the Raiders allow Cousins to remain the starter?
In theory, Cousins could keep the starting job all year, but would a full season on the sideline really benefit Mendoza in the long term?
The California Post’s Vinny Bonsignore talked about that dynamic last week on the team’s flagship radio station, and he believes there will be a point where Mendoza’s development will be stalled by being held out of the lineup.
“I struggle with this because I just feel like, if you start Kirk, which I get it, I understand it. You run the risk, as we’ve talked about, if you’re playing well, why make the move [to Mendoza], right? If he’s playing good and the team’s head is above water, why ever make the move at least this year? Just put it off to next year,” Bonsignore said on Raider Nation Radio’s Morning Tailgate.
“But I just worry that that becomes a wasted year for Fernando Mendoza.”
x: @raidersbeat