Fernando Mendoza’s Preseason Debut Showed Exactly What the Raiders Should Want to See

There are varied schools of thought when it comes to a rookie quarterback’s first preseason start. We often hear about how banal teams try to be in an effort not to give away any valuable early-season play calls, but just as many coaches believe in creating an environment containing some stressors in order to get a sense of what the quarterback will do on an actual game day.

In the preseason debut of Raiders No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza, we saw something of a middle ground. First-year head coach Klint Kubiak—himself making some adjustments and leaning heavily on former NFL head coach Mike McCoy as more of a game manager, which could be a sign of what’s to come—came out and ran plays that, according to one coach with knowledge of the Shanahan system, were definitely “not Day 1 installs.” The Raiders ran a fair amount of jet motion and incorporated that into their two-back running game (you can read more about a revival of two-back offenses in my preseason primer).

Mendoza entered on the team’s second drive and faced members of the Cardinals’ starting defense on both of his first-half drives. Mendoza was 5-of-8 for 47 yards over his most meaningful snaps and finished the night 10-of-16 for 97 yards and a touchdown before exiting early in the fourth quarter.

We’ll get into the good and the bad, but the main takeaway from Mendoza’s first live NFL game action is obvious: The Kubiak-Shanahan umbrella of offense suits him perfectly. Mendoza is a rule-follower, almost to the point of rigidity. The system rewards players who are decisive and efficient, and on Thursday, his head looked like one of those ticking lawn sprinklers, mechanically flipping from one read to the next—though he wasn’t afraid to take off and use his sizable frame to pick up a first down when it made sense, and only as a secondary option. I counted just three dropbacks in which it seemed like Mendoza had trouble deciding where the ball should go, and it bears mentioning that each of those were in late-game drives in which many of Las Vegas’s key contributors were already out of shoulder pads. He never seemed overtaken by his fight-or-flight instincts.

Including plays on which there were penalties called, Mendoza took twice as many snaps under center (10) as he did at Indiana all of last year (five) in the first half. This wasn’t necessarily a surprise, as the under-center pivot was a key focus of Mendoza’s pro day a few months ago, but it was encouraging that his best throw of the night—a 19-yard pass to fellow rookie Malik Benson on the Raiders’ second drive, which featured a precision, tight-window ball and some advanced defender manipulation—came out of a pretty traditional-looking offset I formation and from under center.

The second major takeaway from Mendoza’s debut was how excellent his ball placement was. His touchdown throw to Jack Bech in the second quarter was out of his hands the millisecond Bech crossed the face of Cardinals defensive back Sean Murphy-Bunting. The low placement prevented any dangerous tips in the red zone and got Bech safely across the plane without taking a hit from either of the safeties creeping overhead.

What I thought was Mendoza’s second-best throw of the night—a back-shoulder pass to Benson that fell incomplete—demonstrated an ability to pretty consistently put the ball in an advantageous spot. Only twice did I notice Mendoza leading a receiver into a defender he didn’t see, which happened on the opening drive, or put the ball behind a receiver, which happened once on his final drive.

Mendoza was pounding the middle of the field, with a great timing throw to Brandon Johnson as one of his final snaps before a near-miss in the corner of the end zone on a third-and-7 ended Mendoza’s evening altogether. It is here that I’ll make the critical disclaimer that J.J. McCarthy and Trey Lance both completely blew me away in their preseason debuts, so take what I’m saying about Mendoza with an entire municipality’s snow prevention dome full of salt. The preseason is an absolute psychedelic kaleidoscope, which makes it nearly impossible to tell whether this was the prelude to a decade-long career—although, again, Lance’s preseason debut was heavy with panache and shot-style plays called by then head coach Kyle Shanahan whereas Mendoza’s seemed more like a clinic of higher-difficulty-grade pro-style throws—or the highlights that will run on First Take in 2028 when we’re debating whether the Raiders should trade Mendoza before the deadline.

Starter Kirk Cousins looked far less uncomfortable moving in the pocket than he did in Atlanta, though not in a way that would dampen fan curiosity to see more of the No. 1 pick. Mendoza is going to be pushing for the job well before the team’s Week 13 bye if he continues putting together preseason starts like this one.

That’s because the bad—a few misplaced throws; a few moments of hesitation; an almost stubborn insistence on a few dropbacks to not simply get rid of the football; a cardinal sin sack taken inside the red zone; and a scramble in which he bared his entire unprotected chest to an oncoming defender, providing both an ideal opportunity to get stripped or decleated—wasn’t really all that bad. Mendoza looked every bit the part and in doing his job, raised the stakes for his next preseason snaps where he can continue chipping away at the idea that he isn’t quite ready to play meaningful games just yet.

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