Raiderstation

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.

As far as hype goes, I don't see a Williams or Lawrence next year, but I think I see a couple of guys that could be better QB's.

The one interesting thing is that at the start of the season, Mendoza had no hype. Now after the last couple of games he is being compared to Burrow most of the time.

ELCAraiderfan wrote: Wed Jan 14, 2026 10:20 pm Curveball for Raiders NOT getting Mendoza.

Mendoza and his family being so religious abore the thought of Fernando playing in Sin City and declare he will not sign if the Raiders select him #1 and or he decides to stay in school because the Raiders and Vegas have the #1 selection.

So the Raiders don't really screw up the pick per say, but do because they suck and moved to Sin City!

and Dante Moore says fck it too and goes back to school for another season. done

No franchise QB for the cursed silver & bleak.

Ever been to Miami?

rcraider wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 7:17 am Beating a dead horse here, one thing is for certain, this year was a bad draft for QBs, it produced 1 first rd worthy QB, lucky for us we have the 1st pick in the draft and are in the position to draft him.

And it looked so promising, that why even for Moore it is dangerous coming back. Look at the college landscaped littered with the bodies of former #1 Qb's. Nussmeier, Klubnik, Allar, Lagway, Sellers, Leavitt, Mateer, etc. all were thought to be number one picks. Now any one of them would be lucky to be a second day pick. Manning probably would still be a day two pick just based on his name.

haji81872 wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 7:18 am As far as hype goes, I don't see a Williams or Lawrence next year, but I think I see a couple of guys that could be better QB's.

The one interesting thing is that at the start of the season, Mendoza had no hype. Now after the last couple of games he is being compared to Burrow most of the time.

Started in October. Late in the month as guys fell one by one his name was emerging as a top prospect. Into November is when the Heisman talk began. Cannot remember the last guy that happened to. Burrow was a big school product so his hype began early. But this guy may be unique going back a number of years in that he came from a school not known for football. Heisman winners across the board are either big football schools or smaller schools where the guy was an early favorite. I think the closest I could come to a guy who just emerged his Heisman year was Flutie?

haji81872 wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 7:26 am And it looked so promising, that why even for Moore it is dangerous coming back. Look at the college landscaped littered with the bodies of former #1 Qb's. Nussmeier, Klubnik, Allar, Lagway, Sellers, Leavitt, Mateer, etc. all were thought to be number one picks. Now any one of them would be lucky to be a second day pick. Manning probably would still be a day two pick just based on his name.

Funny enough I just saw a show where they still are saying if Manning entered the draft this year he would be the #1 pick, it's that kind of thought process I can't understand, I go by what I actually see in games, not mock drafts that have a guy forecast as the #1 pick without ever playing a season of college ball.

Attyla wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 7:34 am Started in October. Late in the month as guys fell one by one his name was emerging as a top prospect. Into November is when the Heisman talk began. Cannot remember the last guy that happened to. Burrow was a big school product so his hype began early. But this guy may be unique going back a number of years in that he came from a school not known for football. Heisman winners across the board are either big football schools or smaller schools where the guy was an early favorite. I think the closest I could come to a guy who just emerged his Heisman year was Flutie?

Manziel maybe

rcraider wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 7:40 am Manziel maybe

The Heisman hype train started early with Manziel. Flutie won the Heisman based on a decent year but one great pass.

Attyla wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 7:41 am The Heisman hype train started early with Manziel. Flutie won the Heisman based on a decent year but one great pass.

Well Manziel won it as a freshman and as I remember it
there was a huge build up with Flutie, even the year before he was on the cover of sports illustrated and during the Heisman year the hype around him was huge.

raiders93 wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 7:04 am You see the irony here though right? On one hand you’re discounting a “way too early mock draft” while on the other, making way too early assessments on the 2027 draft.

Point being it’s too early to say with any degree of certainty how strong next years class will be imo. There’s tons of assumptions that these guys all have breakout seasons. Doesn’t always happen that way. I don’t know there’s any Luck, Lawrence, Caleb, Mendoza level prospects next year

Sorry had to add one.

rcraider wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 7:54 am Well Manziel won it as a freshman and as I remember it
there was a huge build up with Flutie, even the year before he was on the cover of sports illustrated and during the Heisman year the hype around him was huge.

Forgot about the cover. I just don't remember that much build up for Flutie. But you may be right.

Attyla wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 7:58 am Forgot about the cover. I just don't remember that much build up for Flutie. But you may be right.

In 83 He finished 3rd in the Heisman voting

rcraider wrote: Wed Jan 14, 2026 11:00 pm Actually Vegas is a pretty nice place to live, at least outside of the strip, there are definitely far worse places

He also grew up in Miami. Miami has as much degeneracy as Vegas if not more so haha

Goodtimes333 wrote: Wed Jan 14, 2026 10:25 pm Being a Christian means being a light in darkness. Every big city in this country could be considered a nasty shithole in the regard of a "sin city"

It didn't stop Derek Carr. There's a lot of NFL players who are about God & Jesus Christ. That's not gonna stop Fernando

And every small town is filled with hypocrites. There is no shortage of Sinners out here.

Corleone wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 6:07 am while it's true that anything can happen, and players emerge from nowhere, it's just not very often a 6'5, 225 lb pro style QB, wins a Heisman, leads his team to the National Championship while throwing more TD than incompletions (in the playoffs vs Bama and Oregon). Prospects like this don't come around every year, you're lucky to get one or two a decade, the last was Joe Burrow. Will be interesting to see how he handles the game Monday night, because another performance like the last two will put him in rare territory.

We are very lucky to be in the position we are.

Yep.

I'm not saying he's a better prospect than Caleb, Chase or Drake but he would have been right in the mix.
Penix and Bo we're solid prospects as well, what a QB class that was.
But Mendoza's would have been right in there.
We would have got our QB that year if he was, we were one QB short of getting ours.

Goodtimes333 wrote: Thu Jan 15, 2026 8:56 am He also grew up in Miami. Miami has as much degeneracy as Vegas if not more so haha

Then chose Berkley and not Texas Christian.