When Patriots legend Tom Brady, whose statue sits outside the team’s stadium, said before the Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl “I don’t have a dog in the fight,” New England linebacker Robert Spillane said of the remark, "[P]ersonally it makes me sick.”
Appearing earlier today on WEEI in Boston, Spillane was asked if it irritated other players in the locker room, too.
“It irritated me, and it made me feel sad for him, spending 20 years here, obviously, went on to do amazing, great things, not only on the football field but in the community, and to say that he had no care in the world, it irritated me,” Spillane said. “It made me feel sad for him. But at the end of the day, that was just my personal opinion. Everyone else has their own opinions in the locker room.”
Patriots coach Mike Vrabel recently addressed Brady’s remark, taking a more pragmatic approach: Brady has moved on, he’s with the Raiders now.
And if Brady did indeed collaborate with the Seahawks before the game, Vrabel understood that, too. Brady’s team was about to hire Seattle offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak as its head coach. It was better for the Raiders if Kubiak arrived with a brand-new Super Bowl ring.
Especially since it’s been 43 years since the last time the Raiders won one of their own.
After Maxx Crosby’s tumultuous offseason, he is set to play for the Raiders in 2026.
And while some starters may be on the field for Las Vegas for the club’s preseason finale next week, Crosby won’t be one of them.
“I think all players need the reps,” head coach Klint Kubiak said in his Friday press conference. “I’m not going to be giving him any, though.”
Crosby is coming off a torn meniscus, which he had surgery to repair. The Ravens backed out of their trade for Crosby in part because of long-term concerns about the knee.
In 15 games last year, Crosby recorded 10.0 sacks, a career-high 28 tackles for loss, six passes defensed, and his first career interception. He was selected to his fifth consecutive Pro Bowl.
Raiders first-year head coach Klint Kubiak has said that his team’s starting quarterback position is Kirk Cousins’ to lose.
But even after this week’s joint practice and preseason game with the Texans, he’s still not ready to name Cousins the Week 1 starter.
While some of that may have to do with the progress displayed by No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza, Kubiak said in his Friday press conference that it’s more about his general philosophy.
“I just don’t think it ever benefits a player to know that they have a spot secured,” Kubiak said. “If there’s always a little bit of uneasiness about that, that benefits the whole team — the player and the team.”
Cousins did not play on Thursday night after going through the joint practice in Houston earlier in the week. Mendoza had an up-and-down night playing the entire first half, finishing 8-of-15 for 86 yards with no touchdowns and a pick six.
Kubiak said he was pleased with the rookie when watching the tape.
“I really liked what he did on third down,” Kubiak said. “We were only 1-of-5 on third down in the first half. However, we did drop the ball twice, and we threw one short of the sticks on third-and-long. He had really good ball placement on the first third down of the game, with a guy in his face. So, on the critical downs, I thought he was playing his best.
“There are things that we must get corrected that will be addressed ASAP.”
What Mendoza needs most now, Kubiak said, is reps. But those are going to be a lot harder to come by in the regular season if Mendoza is not the starting quarterback — which, at this point, he is not slated to be.
Kubiak admitted that’s a challenging factor in Mendoza’s development.
“We have experience as coaches on developing guys when they’re not starting a game, if they don’t start a game,” Kubiak said. “So, it’s [arriving] early, leaving late. It’s using some technological tools at your disposal. But it’s really a lot of [QBs] coach [Mike] Sullivan spending some early mornings and long nights with Fernando and Aiden [O’Connell]. And then you can build in young-guy reps into your practices.
“There’s things you can do. It’s never as good as getting all the reps in practice. But you do the best you can with what you’ve got.”
Las Vegas will host San Francisco next Thursday for the clubs’ final preseason contest.
Fernando Mendoza finished the 2025 season on top of the college football world as the Heisman-winning quarterback of Indiana’s national championship team, but it hasn’t taken him long to figure out that the NFL is a very different beast.
Mendoza started Thursday night’s preseason game against the Texans and saw his third pass of the game get intercepted for an 80-yard touchdown by Houston linebacker Wade Woodaz. Mendoza, who would finish his night 8-of-15 for 86 yards, said after the game that “it was not a good throw” to fullback Connor Heyward and that it taught a lesson about how “one tiny mistake can lead to catastrophe.”
“I came away with that there’s a lot more learning to do, and that although maybe you had a lot of success at another level, this level is a whole step further,” Mendoza said, via Sam Warren of TheAthletic.com.
There was an inevitable learning curve for Mendoza to tackle upon entering the NFL and Thursday night showed that he’s still at the start of that process. The next big question for the Raiders is how long it will be before he continues it in the starting lineup during meaningful games.
Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak is not ready to name his starting quarterback.
Fernando Mendoza struggled in Thursday night’s preseason game, while Kirk Cousins sat out, and afterward Kubiak was asked if that means Cousins is the starter. Kubiak wouldn’t go that far.
“We’ve got another week of playing. I don’t want anyone to be comfortable in their job,” Kubiak said. “It should always be that way for all positions. So, let’s keep going forward.”
Realistically, it’s hard to believe Mendoza is going to start, given that Cousins has been working with the first-string offense in training camp and Kubiak called it Cousins’ job to lose. Cousins has done nothing to lose the job, and Mendoza has done nothing to win it. When the Raiders open the regular season against the Dolphins on September 13, expect Cousins to be under center.
But Kubiak still has time to announce his decision, and he’s not going to do so yet.
