Projected No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza is not planning to attend this month\u2019s NFL Draft in Pittsburgh, according to a league source.<\/p>\n
If the Las Vegas Raiders pick the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback with the top selection, he will be the first No. 1 pick not in attendance since Travon Walker in 2022, who opted to watch the event with friends and family in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
Quarterback Trevor Lawrence, the No. 1 pick in the 2021 draft, also did not attend the draft.<\/p>\n
Each year, the NFL invites top prospects to attend the draft in person, where they can watch the event from the green room, learn their fate and shake hands with commissioner Roger Goodell after their name is called.<\/p>\n
However, in recent years, prospects have been more likely to decline a green room invitation<\/a>, taking into account factors such as draft projections, family attendance, marketing opportunities and travel.<\/p>\n From 2010 to 2019, during the draft\u2019s first 10 years under the three-day format, an average of 24 players attended the green room. The 2020 draft was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and since then, average attendance has dropped to 16 per year. A low (since 2010) of 12 players went to Cleveland in 2021, and just 13 made the trip to Detroit in 2024. For last year\u2019s draft in Green Bay, 17 prospects attended.<\/p>\n All signs point toward Mendoza joining the Raiders on draft night, and the broadcast will likely cut to a live reaction camera from wherever Mendoza is watching.<\/p>\n General manager John Spytek and coach Klint Kubiak were among about 10 members of the Raiders organization who attended the quarterback\u2019s pro day on April 2<\/a> and met with him afterward. The Raiders recently signed Kirk Cousins<\/a> to add a veteran presence to the quarterback room, who could potentially mentor Mendoza in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n Round 1 of the 2026 NFL Draft is at 8 p.m. on April 23. Rounds 2-3 are on April 24, and rounds 4-7 are on April 25. The draft\u2019s main stage will be set up outside the Steelers\u2019 Acrisure Stadium on Pittsburgh\u2019s North Shore, while fan experience festivities will be at Point State Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Projected No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza is not planning to attend this month\u2019s NFL Draft in Pittsburgh, according…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":711683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,535,1317,1315,1316,1232,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-711682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116365115168874628","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}