The Raiders are all but guaranteed to take Fernando Mendoza with the no. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, but the first pick is going to get them a lot more than just a quarterback.
According to the California Post’s Vinny Bonsignore, the no. 1 pick is also brining a head coach to Las Vegas – or will once Klint Kubiak agrees to a deal with the Raiders after the Super Bowl.
“It doesn’t end with the quarterback, but it certainly starts with the quarterback,” Bonsignore said on Raider Nation Radio’s Morning Tailgate on Monday.
“We’re not having this conversation right now with Klint Kubiak unless Fernando Mendoza was in their crosshairs. If they didn’t have access to Fernando Mendoza and that number one pick… I could pretty confidently say that Klint Kubiak would not be agreeing to becoming the head coach of the Raiders,” Bonsignore continued.
“It’s what we talked about, why it was so important to finish with that topic. Because all of a sudden, that opens up your horizons on who you can really and realistically go target as your head coach. The Raiders tried to do that last year, without a real quarterback in place. With Ben Johnson [it was] ‘Alright, I got Caleb Williams over here. Who do you got? Nothing personal, but I’m going to go someplace where I feel like I have a chance because I have a quarterback in place.’”
Looking back, we know now that Johnson was only using the Raiders to get more money from the Bears.
A week after Johnson announced his decision to go to the Bears, his agent essentially said as much.
According to Rick Smith, who appeared on the 2nd City Gridiron podcast, the Raiders were never the front runners to get Johnson, and he enjoyed having the misinformation about his client’s interest in the Raiders out there.
“[My] initial gut reaction day one on the Raiders was ‘No go. Okay?” Smith said. “Tom Brady absolutely has an extremely compelling case that gets you to listen. The whole thing ‘Ben to the Raiders… great sources’ and all the other stuff, that was never right.”
Smith then confirmed he was happy to use Tom Brady and company as leverage against the Bears.
“Sometimes, going back to my job, things go viral that you’re like ‘I got to put a break on this’ and sometimes things go viral like ‘No, this is good. I like this’ and that viral thing [about the Raiders] was ‘I like this. Let’s just leave that out there.’”
x: @raidersbeat
Sick of Brady. He’s not what’s best for the team.
Supposition. Wheres any single fact that says Kubiak is only interested in getting his first HC job if they have Mendoza?
Kubiak just lead an offense with one time bust Sam Darnold at QB to the Super Bowl. It’s not about the QB. It’s about the system that you put around a QB and a solid supporting cast.
Every time I read BJ’s agent bragging about how clever he was in using the Raiders to get more money, I wonder if he really realizes how much of an idiot he actually is for making this thing public… 1. You don’t look good, but he thinks the opposite since he’s showing off as if he invented hot water. 2. Sooner or later you’ll find yourself dealing with the Raiders again for one of your clients and at that point what face will you have? But even just with Chicago which is essentially the one that was defrauded… poor idiot.
and as if on purpose, the idiot is also KK’s agent…..