The Panthers have drafted a wide receiver in the first round of each of the last two drafts and they’re meeting with one of this year’s top prospects at the position.
Jordan Reid of ESPN.com reports that Omar Cooper Jr. is set to visit with the NFC South team. Cooper took part in Indiana’s Pro Day on Wednesday.
Cooper led the Hoosiers with 69 catches and 937 receiving yards on their way to the national title. He also caught 13 touchdowns, which left him two behind team leader Elijah Sarratt.
Tetairoa McMillan was the Panthers’ 2025 first-round pick and he won offensive rookie of the year last season. The Panthers, who have the 19th overall pick this year, traded into the first round to select Xavier Legette in 2024.
Fernando Mendoza has been installed as the likely first overall pick of the 2026 NFL Draft for some time, so there wasn’t much he could do at Indiana’s Pro Day workout to improve his draft standing.
That led to Mendoza taking a different approach in front of representatives of all 32 teams on Wednesday. Mendoza threw around 56 passes and said after the session that he hoped his work helped his teammates make a strong impression on their potential employers.
“I feel like it went great,” Mendoza said, via Michael Marot of the Associated Press. “You know quarterbacks have passed, have done shorter pro days than that. However, I just wanted to make sure everybody could showcase their abilities in front of all 32 NFL teams and really run routes that are applicable to the timing we’re going to be running in the NFL.”
Mendoza said he also viewed the workout as “a little bit of a moment of a gratitude” for what he and Indiana accomplished during the 2025 season. That title is now in the past and Mendoza will now wait three weeks to hear his name called by the Raiders and find out where those teammates will land around the league.
Since they played in Super Bowl XXXVII in the 2002 season, the Raiders have had 15 head coaches, including interim coaches, 27 starting quarterbacks, two playoff appearances and no playoff wins. For the second time in that stretch, the Raiders will draft No. 1 overall.
In 2007, the team selected LSU’s JaMarcus Russell with the top selection. He played 31 games in three seasons before his career ended, going 7-18 in his starts.
Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza of Indiana is the heavy favorite to go No. 1 overall to the Raiders this year.
He will join a bevy of newcomers that includes center Tyler Linderbaum, linebackers Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker, edge rusher Kwity Paye, receivers Jalen Nailor and Dareke Young, cornerback Taron Johnson and fullback Connor Heyward. The Raiders also will see the unexpected return of edge rusher Maxx Crosby.
While their future looks a lot brighter than it did a year ago, the Raiders need Mendoza to be the franchise quarterback Las Vegas believes he is for a turnaround.
“Well, I’m really impressed with the way [G.M.] John [Spytek] and [coach] Klint [Kubiak] are working together, along with John’s staff and the coaching staff,” owner Mark Davis said, via Paul Gutierrez of the team website. “Having the first pick in the draft is exciting because we kind of control the draft. We get to make the decision on who we’re gonna pick.
“But we’ve had that position before, and it didn’t work out. So there’s no magic bullet there, but it’s a great opportunity to get a great player, whoever they decide to pick.”
With the NFL careening toward another work stoppage involving game officials, the executive directors of the two unions most directly impacted by the development have put their heads together.
JC Tretter, the executive director of the NFL Players Association, and Scott Green, the executive director of the NFL Referees Association, met on Tuesday.
“Player safety requires trained, professional officials on the field,” Tretter said in a joint statement. “They manage the game in real time, enforce the rules, and stop situations from escalating. That can’t be replaced by less experienced crews or handled remotely. If player safety truly matters, trained professional officials on the field are not negotiable.”
“Professional officials are trained to control the game in real time,” Green said. “They are the first responders on the field — maintaining order, enforcing rules, and preventing dangerous situations from escalating.”
It’s one of the first official actions of Tretter in his new job. And it likely won’t make the entity with which he’ll eventually be negotiating very happy.
Still, the players are affected by replacement officials. And unions generally support each other.
The NFL generally will be inclined to divide and conquer, when that strategy suits their interests. With the league already making noise that it may want to change the salary-cap system based on increasing expenses, the expenses associated with game officials will surely become part of that formula.
The simple response is obvious: There’s more than enough money to treat everyone fairly.
“We remain hopeful that an agreement can be reached that avoids past disruptions and ensures the game continues to be officiated at the highest level,” Green said.
So does everyone else. Except for perhaps the NFL, which seems to be willing to embrace using lower-level officials (again) in order to put the squeeze on the best available officials.
Is it OK for a rookie quarterback to start from Day 1? Or is it better for that QB to sit and learn behind a veteran before taking over as a starter?
That’s something the Raiders are likely contemplating as they prepare for the 2026 season.
Las Vegas is highly likely to select Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza at No. 1 overall in next month’s draft. With 35 collegiate starts under his belt, there’s reason to think that Mendoza could be QB1 from Day 1 at the highest level.
But Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak said at the annual league meeting on Tuesday that ideally, any rookie QB should have time to sit and learn.
“I think in a perfect world, he’s watching a mature adult go and run an offense and run the team,” Kubiak said. “But, the situation is, you might have that player, you might not have that veteran to show him the way. So he might come in and have to play immediately. But you’d rather him learn, learn before he gets in the game. You don’t always get to pick. It doesn’t work out the exact way you want it to. But at the end of the day, you want to make sure you’re bringing in an individual, drafting a guy that’s mature enough to handle some adversity — whether it’s him starting the first game or him starting the first game Year 2.
“Sometimes they have to play from Day 1,” Kubiak later added. “It’s our job as a coach to get them ready to go. I think it does help the player, though, if they can sit behind a mature adult and watch how they run the show.”
But right now, after trading Geno Smith to the Jets, the Raiders have just Aidan O’Connell on their roster at the position. While O’Connell has appeared in 21 games with 17 starts since the Raiders drafted him out of Purdue in 2023, he does not appear to fit the bill as the kind of ideal veteran for a quarterback like Mendoza to learn behind.
Kirk Cousins is on the market as a free agent, and he could be that kind of QB. But would Cousins sign up for being a bridge quarterback with Las Vegas after he unexpectedly had to do the same thing with the Falcons?
Either way, Kubiak knows it will mainly fall on the coaching staff to ensure whoever is starting at quarterback is ready to play.
“Obviously, you don’t get as much practice time as you used to get,” Kubiak said when asked about developing young QBs. “The OTAs are different than they were 15 years ago. There’s less time, and it feels like with every day that goes by, they’re trying to take even more from you there. So, development is tough. So you’ve got to be really intentional with your time.
“The most obvious thing is that the minute that guy gets on the field, all eyes are on them. And all the success that you hope for them to have, you put on the coaching staff, and you try to put them in a great position to be successful.”
