Fresh off winning a Heisman Trophy and an undefeated national championship, Fernando Mendoza profiles as a prospect who plans on doing and saying the right thing every step of the way.
Though nothing's been made official, veteran signee Kirk Cousins is expected to begin the season as the Las Vegas Raiders starting quarterback. If Mendoza plans on altering those plans, he's certainly not yelling it from the rooftops, instead illustrating that he intends for each of the Raiders quarterbacks to make each other better.
"Being a part of the Silver and Black, we want to compete every single day and do the best that we can for the organization and best for the team so we can win games," Mendoza told me the not long after signing his rookie contract.
"Everybody in the quarterback room is a top-tier quarterback and it's going to be competing with each other, not competing against each other."
It's a curious enough answer, but coming off a college career in which Mendoza piloted Indiana to its first-ever national title, perhaps his openness to buy in isn't all that surprising.
Mendoza is the centerpiece of a QB room with Cousins, Aidan O'Connell -- the only quarterback who has started a game for the franchise – and fellow rookie Jacob Clark, an undrafted free agent.
"Competing with each other [is] pushing each other to be the best quarterback we can possibly be for the Las Vegas Raiders, and to enable [us] to then win as many games as possible," Mendoza said. "Against [is] withholding information, wishing maybe not the best intent on somebody."
Raiders rookie head coach Klint Kubiak has said that having a veteran starting at the onset of the season would be his chosen mode of operation. Hence the belief that Cousins will take the starting reins at least at the commencement of the season.
If that's the plan at hand, it makes even more sense as to why Mendoza is embracing the sponge approach, so to speak, looking for everyone to learn from everyone.
"It's basically all in the palm of my hand and I just need to take advantage of it," Mendoza said.
In that regard, the Raiders offer the opportunity to learn from perhaps the greatest quarterback of all time: team minority owner and seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady.
"It's surreal," Mendoza said of being able to talk with Brady. "It's surreal. However, you know, he's been such a great resource and he's been, from a young age, he's been a big idol of mine and then now it's, OK, Tom is a human being. Yes, he's an exceptional human being, but he's a human being.
"So, take what you can, learn from him, and make sure that you value that relationship, rather than looking at him with googly eyes every second. He wants to be treated as a human being and he is, like I said, an exceptional human being, and he's someone that has a lot of characteristics and values that I look up to as a football player and [as] a character outside of football. But having that relationship is surreal and if you would have told me 10 years ago, I never would have believed you."
The No. 1 pick of the 2026 draft is learning in Las Vegas and the QB competition is on; just not in the manner we're used to.
