Fernando Mendoza Welcome To Las Vegas

[Sold My Soul]

Call your shot....or add your own.

Dante Moore:

https://www.nfldraftbuzz.com/Player/Dante-Moore-QB-UCLA

Fernando Mendoza:

https://www.nfldraftbuzz.com/Player/Fer ... California

May the football godz look kindly down upon the feeble and inept.

[Raidernation1979]

Mendoza starts at about 25 mins. Great play break down

[NoThanksSir]

Nice little film review of Mendoza at Cal before he transferred.

[Willmark]

The pick is Mendoza, anything else is noise.

If the Raiders do something stupid and not take him and pass on the benefits of a rookie contract they are essentially saying: “hey nfl, how rest of you are doing things? Nahh we know better.”

Meanwhile our record says otherwise.

[Willmark]

And any “franchise” QB that becomes a free agent? Don’t want them as a starter in place of drafting Mendoza.

It’s no different than when the Carr homers were crowing “franchise QBs never hit the market! He’ll be snatched up in a minute!”

My response? “You are 100% right, franchise QBs do not hit the open market…”

[raiders93]

Higher ceiling almost always means better physical attributes. Yeah Jamarcus had a higher ceiling than Brady.
No one is thinking intelligence ceilings between Moore and Mendoza when they use those words.

Lamar Jackson is about as a high a ceiling guy as you can find, but then it's all on him, your putting a lot on his plate to hit that ceiling and a lot of hits.

Yeah give me the guy that's QB ready now, with a plenty high enough ceiling. He's smart, has the size, has the arm and can run, that's a high enough ceiling.


There will be non-stop going back and forth because that is the plan the studios come up with to get eyeballs watching.

I generally cringe at the ceiling argument. Who even assigns the ceiling? What’s the probability they achieve this mythical pinnacle of QB excellence as assigned by someone who has no way of knowing?

Realistically whoever we draft is gonna be our day 1 starter. The idea of drafting a guy with a “higher ceiling” doesn’t make a ton of sense for us - we’re not going to bring him along slowly - He’s probably gonna start right away. And I don’t think prioritizing that is short sighted, it’s being realistic. If you put a rookie QB in and totally expose the guy… good luck developing him to his ceiling.

For me, it’s Mendoza all day.

[Attyla]

Mendoza starts at about 25 mins. Great play break down

Thanks for this. My take a ways:

First he preps hard and knows how to articulate the job
He is really a nice guy but very focused
He listens, and that is important because he did get some great advice
He asked good questions and he also has great awareness.
Honest answer to the Heisman noise so he is self aware

He is going to be the next great Raiders QB

[BoKnows81]

Thanks for this. My take a ways:

First he preps hard and knows how to articulate the job
He is really a nice guy but very focused
He listens, and that is important because he did get some great advice
He asked good questions and he also has great awareness.
Honest answer to the Heisman noise so he is self aware

He is going to be the next great Raiders QB

His mannerisms and the way he talks remind me of Brady (the player). Love it.

[JRaider17]

Slip that he we are staying? (As we should)

[JRaider17]

Slip that he we are staying? (As we should)

[Attyla]

His mannerisms and the way he talks remind me of Brady (the player). Love it.

There was a few times during the interview where he talked about his relationship with his center. On offense, pre snap, that is an important factor. The offense goes through that relationship and you don't always see that from college players.

He started talking about that final drive in the Penn St game and his analysis of the defensive reads and his clock management. He started specifically talking about the 40 second point in that game and how he viewed it as plenty of time to do what needed to be done. This is a football mind, and you can talk about athletes playing QB all day but give me the guy with the football IQ

[GoodTimeCharlie]

Just news/article…

https://www.theringer.com/2026/01/06/nf ... re-raiders

Edit: I’m all for Mendoza. I got interested last year when he started showing up in mock simulators (my goto: https://www.nfldraftbuzz.com/simulator)

He may not be “toolsy” or have a “born to throw arm”, but for me, he’s everything this franchise needs. He’s plenty talented to succeed at the position, and “intangibles”, he has no pier. This franchise is bereft of intelligence. How ‘bout we mainline some with a kid that never stops seeking/studying the opponent. Pre-game, post, during. This dude is the real-deal.

[Attyla]

Slip that he we are staying? (As we should)

LOL he did not hint, he blatantly said we are getting the QB with that pick.

[JRaider17]

LOL he did not hint, he blatantly said we are getting the QB with that pick.

As we absolutely should.

[islandboy]

LOL he did not hint, he blatantly said we are getting the QB with that pick.

Only way Spytek trades the #1 pick is if he can get 4 1sts-(26,27,28,29), a couple of 2nds and a starting guard, from a team that he thinks will be bottom 10 for the next 4 years (Cle/Az/NO??)

Then if you trade Max for 2 1sts and a 2nd, that would be alot of building blocks to rebuild this team.

[Attyla]

Only way Spytek trades the #1 pick is if he can get 4 1sts-(26,27,28,29), a couple of 2nds and a starting guard, from a team that he thinks will be bottom 10 for the next 4 years (Cle/Az/NO??)

Then if you trade Max for 2 1sts and a 2nd, that would be alot of building blocks to rebuild this team.

We pick the QB, I know picks are important but this guy is NFL ready right now so you take the 6'5 guy and let his walk on stage