{"id":945254,"date":"2026-07-19T10:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/945254\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T10:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:41:15","slug":"will-fernando-mendoza-or-kirk-cousins-be-the-las-vegas-raiders-starting-qb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/945254\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Fernando Mendoza Or Kirk Cousins Be The Las Vegas Raiders Starting QB?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Las<\/p>\n

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Jun 9, 2026; Henderson, NV, USA; Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko (left) talks with quarterbacks Fernando Mendoza (15) and Kirk Cousins (8) during minicamp at Intermountain Health Performance Center.<\/p>\n

The plan for the\u00a0Las Vegas Raiders\u00a0<\/strong>and first-year head coach is simple: let veteran\u00a0Kirk Cousins\u00a0<\/strong>start at\u00a0quarterback\u00a0<\/strong>while No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza\u00a0<\/strong>gets used to life in the NFL.<\/p>\n

However, plans are one thing, reality is another, and it appears that the Raiders have a dilemma on their hands before Mendoza even takes a snap in the pros.<\/p>\n

\u201cIdeally, you don\u2019t want him to start from day one,\u201d Kubiak previously told \u00a0Fox Sports.<\/a> \u201cYou\u2019d love him to be able to learn behind somebody. That\u2019s in a perfect world. It doesn\u2019t always work out that way. Sometimes they have to play from day one, and it\u2019s our job as coaches to get them ready to go. I think it does help the player if they can sit behind a mature adult and watch how they run the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that may not be possible.<\/p>\n

Fernando Mendoza Already Looks Better Than Kirk Cousins According To Report<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that Mendoza<\/a> is a tireless worker. He skipped Indiana\u2019s visit to the White House after winning the national championship because he didn\u2019t want to miss time at rookie camp.<\/p>\n

Then he expressed his frustration with having to miss practice to attend the league\u2019s annual rookie symposium.<\/p>\n

But apparently, missing that time hasn\u2019t set him back at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re out on the practice field, if Mendoza is clearly better than Kirk Cousins,\u201d<\/strong> NFL reporter Mike Florio stated<\/a>.\u201c\u2026And you\u2019ve got some grand strategic plan that you\u2019re going to let him sit for a year? What\u2019s Maxx Crosby going to say about that? What\u2019s Brock Bowers going to say about that? What\u2019s any veteran player going to say<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ve a guy who we can all tell at every practice is better than Kirk Cousins as of right now, but you\u2019ve got this plan that you\u2019re going to groom Fernando Mendoza by having him not play, by deliberately choosing the lesser guy to be the quarterback. Good luck with that one, Klint Kubiak.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Florioa makes a good point. How can you justify not playing Mendoza if he\u2019s simply better than Cousins already?<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s entirely possible that won\u2019t be the case when the real games actually start. But it sounds like it\u2019s the case now, and if so, the Raiders have a problem on their hands, albeit a good one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Jun 9, 2026; Henderson, NV, USA; Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko (left) talks…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":945255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[43],"tags":[2778,1318,11345,535,1317,1315,1316,1232,4261,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-945254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-fernando-mendoza","tag-football","tag-kirk-cousins","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945254","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=945254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}