Klint Kubiak will most likely be the next head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders in 2026 and the even stronger expectation is that Fernando Mendoza will be the Raiders’ quarterback when the card is turned in for the first pick in the 2026 draft.
Mendoza has been one of the biggest draws to the Raiders’ head coaching vacancy that can’t officially be filled until after the Super Bowl, and even though Kubiak hasn’t talked publicly about Mendoza, a series of comments he made two years ago feel even more relevant today.
At the time, Kubiak was the New Orleans Saints’ offensive coordinator, and he was asked about how he evaluated the quarterbacks going into the 2024 draft.
His description of what he was looking for in a quarterback sounded a lot like he was talking about Mendoza.
“I think probably the no. 1 thing you’d be looking at is how many games has the guy played? How many games has he started? What’s his record? The guy that will probably get taken first overall [has] played a lot of football, won a lot of football games, so I think… is he a winner? That’s something that you’re looking for,” Kubiak said on the Saints Radio Network in April of 2024.
“The decision making, the timing and accuracy, those are the three things we spend a lot of time on as coaches. So those would be probably the top four I’d be looking at. The record, decision making, timing and accuracy, and how that would fit into what we do.”
At the time of Kubiak’s comments, Mendoza had only played one college season and wasn’t even in the national conversation to be an NFL quarterback.
And on a related note, it’s an interesting exercise right now to look back at what draft pundits were saying about the quarterbacks in the 2026 draft a year ago.
Todd McShay’s 11 month early mock draft had Garrett Nussmeier going no. 1 overall to the Jets, LaNorris Sellers going no. 4 to the Rams, Cade Klubnik going no. 5 to the Browns, and Drew Allar going no. 7 to the Raiders.
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He’s also describing O’Connell.
Pretty feeble answer.
I wanted kubiak the whole time ,and it looks like we’re going to get him, I’ll feel better when it’s a done deal but Go Raiders!!!!