Fernando Mendoza's Performance In The Las Vegas Raiders Preseason Game Raised Some Eyebrows
The Raiders top selection in the 2026 NFL Draft, Fernando Mendoza, struggled in his second ever preseason game in the NFL. Early on the Las Vegas quarterback threw a pick six. Is this just an early hiccup for Mendoza or a sign of a bigger problem?
Video Transcript
The Las Vegas Raiders second preseason game of the 2026 season is here against Houston Texans, and the first half wasn't great.
20 to three with Houston leading.
Offense doesn't look good, defense doesn't look good, but it's preseason, so let's not overreact.
Let's remember that it is preseason.
And as Adam Schefter reported just hours before the game, Fernando Mendoza was set to play the entire first half, and that's exactly what he did.
Now, did he have a good day?
Not really.
The entire offense as a whole didn't.
But Mendoza had really good moments.
He also had some really bad moments.
You see this from Levi Edwards.
Mendoza had, in the first half against the Texans, in a lead defense, obviously the Texans offense or defense starters didn't start, but they still are really deep on defense.
In the first half, Mendoza was eight for 15, 86 yards and a pick six.
Some really nice plays in there.
The pick six wasn't exactly his fault.
I guess you could give him a little bit of the blame, but, he was expecting to check it down to Mike Washington, for what may have been a first down.
Mike Washington, he was ex- expecting Mike Washington to sit, in a certain spot.
It's kind of a timing route thing.
And Mike Washington just didn't sit.
Picked off, taken 80 yards for pick six.
Mendoza tried to run back and run down, the defender who ended up scoring that touchdown, and obviously that didn't go well.
But other than that play and the offensive line just giving him no stability whatsoever, Trey Zune gave up, a quarterback hit to Djavion Clowney.
We know that Caden McDonald, a guy that a lot of Raiders fans wanted in this draft, sacked Mendoza.
Mendoza got hit a lot.
But somehow he was still eight for 15 with 86 yards.
And one of the plays that stands out to me most is, on the first drive, there's a throw to Jalen Naylor, who, somehow found a, a little gap, a, a, a little space in a really tight coverage.
Really good throw by Mendoza, goes for a first down.
Naylor was the only starter by the way, or projected starter, to, play in this game.
And then there's another play on third and 17, I believe, Mendoza to Malik Benson, and it goes for a first down.
So Mendoza had some really good moments.
There are also some other bad moments outside of the pick six.
On that same play, on the pick six, you could say that Mendoza may have drifted to the left a little too much, which is where the pressure was mainly coming from.
Obviously, that's his blind side.
I mean, you can put that on him or you cannot.
It doesn't really matter that much in the grand scheme of things.
It's a pick six, play's over with, let's move on.
But I noticed something, and maybe, this is just me, maybe other people are noti- noticing this as well.
On the plays from under center, and we all know Fernando Mendoza didn't run any under center plays this last year in, in college, hardly any.
On the plays from under center, Mendoza just didn't look very comfortable in his drop back.
There were a lot of times where it felt like his drop back was supposed to be more steps than what he took.
There were times where his drop back was, like, two steps, and then he was waiting for a while.
He just didn't look very comfortable.
And may- like I said, maybe that's me.
I don't know exactly what the call is.
I don't know exactly what the protection is.
So there's a lot there to unpack.
But he didn't always look comfortable.
I will say that, when he did look comfortable, the kid was on fire.
He had some really rocket throws.
He took the easy play.
After making that interception, he took the easy play once, or the easy, throw, a few times, and man, the offense got moving.
But it always stalled.
They only scored points on one drive, obviously the field goal, and that was a 50, that was a 51-yarder by Matt Gay.
So yeah, I mean, there's not a whole lot of more to unpack there.
He wasn't given a really, a great opportunity to show what he can do.
The offense as a whole kind of stunk, and the defense didn't put him in very good situations either.
So I would say it's kind of a toss-up for him in this second preseason game.
It's very obvious that Kirk Cousins is still the starter.
I mean, he didn't play at all, and to me, that says that he's the starter.
So yeah, there's, there's gonna be another game for Mendoza.
Clint Kubiak said that Mendoza needs all of the reps, and surely he meant that.
So, don't think that this is the end of seeing him for this preseason because maybe he'll play next week.
And if he doesn't, I still think that we're gonna see him at some point during the regular season.
