The Raiders drafted Fernando Mendoza to be their quarterback of the future. The No. 1 overall pick has been “as advertised” thus far, coach Klint Kubiak said Wednesday.
"[He has] not disappointed,” Kubiak said, via Ryan McFadden of ESPN. “He’s working his tail off. It’s very important to him that he asks a lot of great questions when he gets on the field. He’s no B.S.; he’s all ball.”
The Raiders are easing Mendoza into the offense, with Kirk Cousins taking first-team reps, followed by Aidan O’Connell and then Mendoza.
Kubiak has repeatedly said he would prefer that a rookie quarterback not start Day 1, and the sportsbooks like Cousins to start Week 1. But the Raiders are giving Mendoza every chance to win the job.
Mendoza is going the extra mile, putting in the work, asking questions and taking notes.
“Anything that you put in front of him, he’s going to attack it,” Kubiak said. “Anything new, he spends extra time on. You can tell he fixes things from one day to the next.”
Defensive end Maxx Crosby’s unexpected return to the Raiders has not included a return to the practice field yet.
Crosby remains out after having knee surgery this offseason, but he was on the field to stretch with his teammates ahead of Wednesday’s organized team activity. Crosby may not do much more than that this spring as head coach Klint Kubiak said that the focus remains on making sure that he’s ready to go when training camp opens in August.
“Yeah, we do. That’s the goal,” Kubiak said. “He’s still the first one in this building every day, working. He’s a leader on our team, and when he’s out there, you feel his presence. And yes, we’re counting on him being there for training camp, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Maxx was ahead of schedule.”
Crosby was set to join the Ravens in March, but Baltimore called off the trade and Crosby returned to the Raiders after a 2025 season that featured some acrimony with the organization. Kubiak said that Crosby’s approach to the offseason has shown he “knows we’re counting on him to be a leader” before and after he’s healthy enough for a full return to action.
Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak hasn’t been in his job long, but he’s been in it long enough to know who one of the cornerstones of his team will be this season.
Tight end Brock Bowers had 112 catches for 1,194 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie, but an early-season knee injury forced him to play at less than 100 percent and miss time during his second year. The 2024 first-round pick had 64 catches for 680 yards and seven touchdowns in 12 games, but it doesn’t sound like any of the knee issues have been troubling Bowers this offseason.
Kubiak called Bowers a “standard bearer” for the organization and had a colorful description of what’s impressed him most about Bowers on the field.
“He’s kind of a football robot, in a good way,” Kubiak said at a Wednesday press conference. “He’s a football robot from heaven. You know, he’s a Cadillac out there. We gotta get the most out of Brock. Wherever he goes, he’s been successful.”
The Raiders have followed up the Bowers selection by taking running back Ashton Jeanty and quarterback Fernando Mendoza in the first round of the last two drafts. If all goes as hoped in Vegas, the trio will be the centerpiece of a lot of winning during the Kubiak era.
Raiders owner Mark Davis continues to own less and less of the team.
Via Albert Breer of SI.com, this week’s ownership meeting will include votes on several Raiders-related transactions.
Egon Durban hopes to buy another 11 percent of the team, which would push his personal holdings to 22 percent. Michael Meldman targets another 5.4 percent, for a total of 12.9 percent.
“Small chunks” of the team also will be purchased by Dell founder Michael Dell, Blackstone executive Joseph Baratta, WME Group Executive Chairman Ari Emanuel, and TKO president Mark Shapiro.
Earlier this year, Davis created a succession plan that would give Durban an option to buy controlling interest in the team, if/when Davis decides to cash out entirely.
For now, Davis is cashing out partially. He still has enough to run the team. It’s starting to feel like Davis is inching toward exiting the business he inherited when his father, Al Davis, died in 2011.
As Davis, who turned 72 on Monday, said earlier this year, he’s not married. He has no children. He can’t take it with him, and he can’t pass it on. Why not turn it into a mountain of cash while he’s still young enough to properly spend it?
When the Raiders signed Kirk Cousins as a free agent, they added a veteran quarterback with experience playing for head coach Klint Kubiak and offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko from their time in Minnesota.
Fernando Mendoza does not share that background. The first overall pick has been getting to know the offense over the course of the offseason and Janocko said that the fresh eyes have been beneficial to all involved. Janocko called Mendoza “a sponge” who “wants to know the whys of everything, the story behind everything” that the team is doing.
“He’s asking questions that you might not have thought about in a couple of years,” Janocko said, via the team’s website. “It also makes you evaluate everything. ‘I know we’ve had some success doing it one way, but we could do it another way and be even better.’”
It remains to be seen if Cousins or Mendoza is on the field against the Dolphins in Week 1, but Mendoza is the long-term answer for the franchise and anything he does now to create a fit for himself in the offense will pay dividends for the Raiders whenever he’s under center.
