There is no smoke and mirrors when it comes to what the Las Vegas Raiders are going to do with the first overall pick. Fernando Mendoza will be the selection, giving the team a young franchise quarterback for the first time in a while.
Mendoza isn’t on the roster yet, but he now knows exactly who his veteran mentor will be. Kirk Cousins is set to sign with Las Vegas, as part-owner Tom Brady is building a quarterback room he’s comfortable with. Although Cousins ideally would play a mentor role, there’s a very real possibility Mendoza sits behind him to start out his rookie season.
It wouldn’t be uncommon for a first overall pick quarterback to sit for a while to begin his NFL career. That appears to be the playbook new head coach Klint Kubiak wants to follow; at least in an ideal world.
Klint Kubiak would prefer if Fernando Mendoza doesn’t start Week 1
Kubiak recently spoke about the idea of Mendoza sitting initially and agreed that it would be the optimal path: “Ideally, you don’t want [a rookie QB] to start from Day 1. You’d love for him to learn behind somebody. That’s a perfect world. It doesn’t always work out that way“.
Given that Kubiak coached Cousins for three seasons while with the Minnesota Vikings, there’s a familiarity with the veteran that won’t be developed with Mendoza for a while.
With Kubiak’s comments in mind, and Cousins’ solid end to last season, Mendoza may be waiting a bit before taking the field as the Raiders’ starting quarterback.
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