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.

[SkullCrusher]

If you only look at Manning's good game sure, they would take Manning over Mendoza. But those good games? They were against weak opponents. And they were surrounded by dismal games. But if you look at Mendoza's performances against teams that are good? He shined in those games and while he had a few games that were not great, he still gut checked when he had to. Penn St had them deep into the 4th, and Mendoza chewed them up.

Yeah I'm not going to be the GM to put my neck out for Manning first overall this year, dude needs probably 2 more years. One guy was the main guy on an undefeated Nat Champ, checks nearly all boxes and the other guy not in the tournament, checks less boxes certainly. But I'm taking Manning just because of name?

[Oaktownonly]

Never had a favorable opinion about Dan, but this is possibly his worst take ever...still SMH.

=====================================================================================
Dan Orlovsky says Arch Manning would go over Fernando Mendoza IN 2026 NFL Draft: “Not even close”
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/dan-o ... 01869.html

Dan needs to go back and watch Cal vs USC from 2023. Mendoza went throw for throw with Caleb Williams and lost by one point. Could Manning have done that playing for Cal? And Mendoza did that as a sophomore.

[DanKD]

There were a lot of warning signs...... I didn't want us to draft him. I don't think that makes me a draft expert and I wasn't alone. Some people put way more stock into pro days and physical traits for a QB and so there were some people who thought he was the right pick. There were plenty of vocal people who disagreed.

I didn't want to draft him either. Even did a 32 person mock draft as the raiders and took megatron in the 1st and Greg Olsen in the 2nd (did take Trent Edwards in the 3rd so missed that one.

[heavyD]

Eli Manning was always a 2nd tier QB save for his two magical playoff runs as there's a big gap between him and Payton. Has Arch shown any indication that he's even as good as Eli?

[tatalalicious]

Eli Manning was always a 2nd tier QB save for his two magical playoff runs as there's a big gap between him and Payton. Has Arch shown any indication that he's even as good as Eli?

That last name carries alot of currency in the nfl.

[Southshield]

I was all for Russell until he showed up at the combine so out of shape looking awful. The you heard meetings didn't go well and he would say he only wanted to get drafted by the team that pays him the most. a lot of people ignored his red flags because of his incredible talent.

[NoThanksSir]

There is no real way to know how Mendoza compares to qbs taken in recent drafts until we've seen him in action in his first few NFL seasons. If I was to make a bet, I think he's going to exceed most of if not all the qbs taken in the last few drafts. Famous last words I know.

You're right, there is no single metric that determines who will be a franchise QB or not. There'd be a lot less busts if that were to be the case. But Mendoza's resume is special. Unique. In the last 10 years only one other QB has done what Mendoza has, and that's Joe Burrow. The greatest knock on Mendoza is that he didn't pass for many yards. But the context needs to be recognized, most 1st overall picks are throwing to NFL talent. Mendoza was not.

The conclusion that I came to is that the 1st round QBs that become legit NFL starters have the following characteristics

• Pass for over 3000 yds

• 45+ all purpose TDs

• Big wins against top conference opponents

• Heisman/CFB Champ winner

By these metrics, the best college season in recent memory was Joe Burrow. No one has come quite as close to Burrow as Mendoza. And I will say, Mendoza is far off from Burrow. That's how good Burrow's last college season was. He also had Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, and Terrace Marshall. But this is the closest since.

[Willmark]

Mendoza year one doesn’t even need to be anything other than himself.

Kubiak’s offense is going to limit the mistakes to a degree. Add to this I think 12 personnel should be our base.

Even before FA and the draft: Jeanty, Bowers and Mayer shoud be the base set mixing in Besh and Tucker. With that Mendoza didn’t need to play hero ball.

He just needs to limit mistakes.

If he does that and assuming some further help like Shaheed in the outside and say Linderbaum at center? We go from laughable to respectable in year 1. This is Koolaide in my opinion.

Now add to this? While are schedule is tough I suspect a fair number of AFC teams will have trouble ahead. KC is likely to have a lot more issues than people suspect, same for the Bills. Not saying SB or bust for us, but around 8-9 wins and I suspect we are going to catch a lot of teams by surprise.

And to bring this all back to Fernando? Sorry/not sorry to the Carr fans out there. Carr played not to lose. Everything we’ve seen from Mendoza is the opposite. That alone goes a long way.

[NoThanksSir]

Kubiak’s offense is going to limit the mistakes to a degree. Add to this I think 12 personnel should be our base.

Seahawks are 29th in pass attempts and 3rd in rushing. I think it's safe to assume Mendoza fits Kubiak's style. He won't be lighting up the box score. I think it's a perfect combination of player and play caller.

[Corleone]

https://www.si.com/nfl/raiders/onsi/gm- ... reddit.com

This is interesting, we know most the media are known Raider haters and are going to downgrade Mendoza every opportunity they get, but the evidence is becoming pretty clear that it's not our own Raider bias telling us that Mendoza looks like a franchise QB.

This article polls 11 executives on where Mendoza would rank in the last 3 drafts (QB's like Young, Stroud, Caleb W, Drake Maye, J Daniels, Cam Ward), and Mendoza comes out as the top ranked guy.

Another thing that was really going to tell us how NFL people grade Mendoza was our coaching search, and turns out, the #1 available offensive coach, chose to come to the Raiders, and I'm guessing in large part because of the QB situation. We've seen year after year after year, young promising coaches turn us down for this very reason, but Mendoza has already changed the fate of our franchise.

I really think we've hit pay dirt.

[Oaktown Superman]

Let the Jets have the # 1 overall pick, and I bet the “pundits” wouldn’t be saying they need to trade the pick. But the Raiders…

[chucker]

You're right, there is no single metric that determines who will be a franchise QB or not. There'd be a lot less busts if that were to be the case. But Mendoza's resume is special. Unique. In the last 10 years only one other QB has done what Mendoza has, and that's Joe Burrow. The greatest knock on Mendoza is that he didn't pass for many yards. But the context needs to be recognized, most 1st overall picks are throwing to NFL talent. Mendoza was not.

The conclusion that I came to is that the 1st round QBs that become legit NFL starters have the following characteristics

• Pass for over 3000 yds

• 45+ all purpose TDs

• Big wins against top conference opponents

• Heisman/CFB Champ winner

By these metrics, the best college season in recent memory was Joe Burrow. No one has come quite as close to Burrow as Mendoza. And I will say, Mendoza is far off from Burrow. That's how good Burrow's last college season was. He also had Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, and Terrace Marshall. But this is the closest since.

It's also notable that Joe Burrow's final year was when he was almost a year older, with one more year of college than Mendoza. That's not to say that Mendoza would match it if he returned for another season, but I think it's unlikely that Burrow would have returned for that season if he'd had the kind of junior year that Mendoza had - winning the Heisman and a national championship.

I think Burrow is the best comp in style of play. Smart, accurate, an arm that's good but not great and I think the key commonality is that they both play great in the biggest moments when so many players are wilting under the pressure.

[BotesBoats]

You're right, there is no single metric that determines who will be a franchise QB or not. There'd be a lot less busts if that were to be the case. But Mendoza's resume is special. Unique. In the last 10 years only one other QB has done what Mendoza has, and that's Joe Burrow. The greatest knock on Mendoza is that he didn't pass for many yards. But the context needs to be recognized, most 1st overall picks are throwing to NFL talent. Mendoza was not.

The conclusion that I came to is that the 1st round QBs that become legit NFL starters have the following characteristics

• Pass for over 3000 yds

• 45+ all purpose TDs

• Big wins against top conference opponents

• Heisman/CFB Champ winner

By these metrics, the best college season in recent memory was Joe Burrow. No one has come quite as close to Burrow as Mendoza. And I will say, Mendoza is far off from Burrow. That's how good Burrow's last college season was. He also had Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, and Terrace Marshall. But this is the closest since.

Fwiw also, more context:
Burrow of course had 5600 yards / 60 tds his last year in college, with 527 attempts throwing to two of the best future NFL receivers.

Mendoza's 3500 yards was on 379 attempts throwing to mostly scrubs, and 1 upper mid round draft pick WR.

If Mendoza had as many attempts as Burrow he'd have 5000 yards and 57 tds. Theoretically, but still, if we scale it to an equal percentage it's pretty impressive.

[NoThanksSir]

Fwiw also, more context:
Burrow of course had 5600 yards / 60 tds his last year in college, with 527 attempts throwing to two of the best future NFL receivers.

Mendoza's 3500 yards was on 379 attempts throwing to mostly scrubs, and 1 upper mid round draft pick WR.

If Mendoza had as many attempts as Burrow he'd have 5000 yards and 57 tds. Theoretically, but still, if we scale it to an equal percentage it's pretty impressive.

I actually checked for Mendoza's lack of talent when I compiled these numbers. Adjusted for the mean YAC of top college offenses, Mendoza is closer to 3800-3900 yards. Burrow's 5K is a severe outlier. I don't think Mendoza is Burrow but he still had a ridiculously good year. He beats out non Burrow prospects because he beat elite competition and scores TDs

[NoThanksSir]

Fwiw also, more context:
Burrow of course had 5600 yards / 60 tds his last year in college, with 527 attempts throwing to two of the best future NFL receivers.

Mendoza's 3500 yards was on 379 attempts throwing to mostly scrubs, and 1 upper mid round draft pick WR.

If Mendoza had as many attempts as Burrow he'd have 5000 yards and 57 tds. Theoretically, but still, if we scale it to an equal percentage it's pretty impressive.

Yea it's hard to prognosticate these kind of things. I have him closer to 4K than Burrow's numbers. Personally I think he only left 400-500 yds on the table due to lack of talent. Either way, his numbers are elite before any type of bell curve. He scored at ease against elite college defenses.