Should Mendoza start Week 1 for Raiders?
Mike Florio and Chris Simms assess the Raiders' quarterback situation and debate whether Fernando Mendoza should get the start in Week 1.
Video Transcript
One last thing before we break, as it relates to tonight's game between the Raiders and the Texans.
Are you starting to think Fernando Mendoza is gonna be the week one starter- Ha!
For the Raiders?
Ha.
What?
No, he gonna sit the whole year.
They're gonna sit the whole Yes.
I've been making fun of this.
I mean, I made fun of this last week almost immediately after their game.
To go, I mean, it was Kirk Cousins the starter, Kirk Cousins the starter, Kirk Cousins the starter, and then they saw Mendoza and they were like, "Whoa, he read the field good.
Woo, that was a laser.
Woo, that was a laser."
And they went, "Well, now it's Kirk Cousins' job to lose."
They've already changed their tune, and now he's getting, now Mendoza's getting reps with the ones this week, and he's gonna play a whole lot tonight.
And yes, the door's been cracked open because they're sitting there on a everyday basis going, "Hey, Kirk's nice.
You know, he leads the team.
You know, he knows where to go with the ball.
But, I mean, his arm is, it's weak.
He's not very athletic."
Mendoza's throwing fireballs compared to him on, on the practice field.
So yes, and the team's seeing that, and that's kind of what we alluded to before this happened, that we thought that this would be a possibility, and I think it's happening right in front of our eyes right now.
Yeah, you know, it's funny.
Before training camp, I was calling BS on this idea that, that Mendoza should sit and that Mendoza couldn't beat out Cousins.
I mean, I remember saying, probably sitting in this seat, I probably said it recently, if Fernando Mendoza can't beat out 37-year-old Kirk Cousins, three years removed from a torn Achilles, and he's never been the same since then, never fully the same since then, he shouldn't have been the first overall pick.
What are you doing taking this guy if he can't beat out Kirk Cousins at age 37, still not the same guy after the torn Achilles from 2023?
So, if you give it a fair shot, he's gonna win, and I feel like they've been trying to keep Mendoza in mothballs, keep him under wraps, and I really don't know what the mentality is.
Part of me thinks that Tom Brady was just like, "He's gonna sit.
He's gonna sit."
And they kind of had to just kind of gradually get Tom to the point where Tom says, "He's gonna play."
Exactly.
And Well, maybe that's the good thing, like you said yesterday about him being at practice.
Then he gets a firsthand look to go, "Oh, wait, this freaking kid's all over it.
He, he's got it down."
And then he gets to sit there on the sideline and go, "Oh, wait, you know, Kirk, Kirk Cousins just threw a wet noodle arm, you know, comeback that was in the air for four minutes."
Yeah.
And then Mendoza threw the same route, and it was like, "Whoa, I can barely see it.
It looked like a tracer."
so, you know, the, that, that could've happened certainly.
And so we'll, we'll see where this goes.
It's gonna be interesting.
I know there's this, ah, you know my thoughts.
Play football.
We're seeing rookies come into the league and go to the playoffs right away.
I know everybody brings up Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, and Tom Brady.
Maybe if Tom Brady played the year before, he would've thrown for more than 145 yards in the first Super Bowl, and they would've won by more.
Maybe if Br- Mahomes played in his year before, they would've beat the Patriots in that AFC Championship Game, 'cause he'd have had a little more experience and figured out what they were doing to him r- rather, rather than figuring it out in the third quarter.
And the same thing with Aaron Rodgers.
If, if he would've played, maybe it wouldn't have taken three years for them to win the Super Bowl or get to that point.
And so that's where I fight against it.
You can't practice football like you talked about- Well- unless playing football, so I, I'd rather see you out there and get that experience, as long as the team can help you and support you.
And Aaron Rodgers was caught behind a Hall of Famer.
Yep.
Tom Brady was caught behind a guy that had a $100 million contract.
Yep.
And, you know, that, that's just, that And, and Mahomes was behind a guy that was a perennial playoff- Yeah for playoffs.
And first pick of the draft.
Yeah.
He took them to the playoffs every year.
Right.
Yeah.
So this is very different, and this is a team that desperately needs a kick in the ass.
This isn't the Chiefs of nine years ago, where it's like, "You know what?
We get to the playoffs every year.
Let's give Alex one more year out of respect to him, and we'll get Patrick ready and, and we'll, we'll, we'll go from there."
No.
Th- this is a team that has stunk, for the most part, since 2002, the last year they went to the Super Bowl
