Why Are NFL Analysts Suddenly Down on Fernando Mendoza? Follow the Clicks
Is the fact that the Las Vegas Raiders are drafting Fernando Mendoza first in the NFL Draft the reason analysts are suddenly focusing on his weaknesses? Or is it simply for clicks to get Raider Nation riled up?
Video Transcript
Let's talk Fernando Mendoza and the hot take industrial complex.
The Fernando Mendoza pile on picked up steam at exactly one moment, when it became obvious he was going number one to Las Vegas.
Funny how that works.
Let's be honest, there are real questions about Mendoza.
He ran an almost exclusively shotgun offense at Indiana.
Under center snaps, about three percent of his college reps, that's a legitimate adjustment at the next level.
No one's pretending otherwise.
But here's what gets conveniently ignored.
Mendoza transferred from Cal, took Indiana to a sixteen and zero record, won the Heisman, threw forty-one touchdowns against six picks, and won a national championship.
He got knocked out of the Big Ten title game and came back and won it.
Those aren't system numbers.
That's a guy who gets bigger when the moment gets biggest.
And now Todd McShay is going on TV saying Ty Simpson's tape was better?
One anonymous offensive coach tells The Athletic he has doubts, and suddenly Mendoza is damaged goods.
Follow the clicks, people.
We live in the hot take economy.
The Raiders pick was a foregone conclusion weeks ago.
The only way to generate traffic was to go against the grain.
That's not evaluation, that's content.
PFF graded him at ninety-one point six.
Four NFL executives called him the consensus top pick.
Tom Brady publicly endorsed him.
And the Jared Goff comparison that's being thrown around like an insult?
Jared Goff just won a Super Bowl.
The Raiders haven't had a real franchise quarterback since Rich Gannon in 2002.
That's twenty-four years.
Mendoza is a winner with the receipts to prove it.
Raider Nation, don't let the noise talk you out of it.
