Barring an unforeseen change of heart, the Las Vegas Raiders will make Heisman-winning Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft on Thursday.
So, everyone assumed that first-year Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak was talking about Mendoza last month when he said, “Ideally, you don’t want him to start from day one. You’d love him to be able to learn behind somebody. That’s in a perfect world. It doesn’t always work out that way.”
Former NFL quarterback Chase Daniel disagrees.
“I’ve been pretty adamant about it: I think he should start right away,” Daniel told Trey Wingo on Wingo’s “Straight Facts Homie” podcast. “When you draft a quarterback, the expectation in the first round is to play.”
Daniel continued:
“When I was working for FOX on ‘The Facility,’ we had a bunch of researchers, and I had them look this up because we kept talking about it. They went back, I think, two decades. I wanted to know the average time of a rookie quarterback drafted in the first round sitting. I thought it would be a lot longer than it was. Other than Aaron Rodgers, other than Patrick Mahomes, other than Jordan Love, and a couple of other [quarterbacks with injuries], the average time to start is three weeks in.”
Daniel went undrafted in 2009 but served as a quality backup quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, and Los Angeles Chargers before retiring from the NFL and transitioning into media in September 2023.
The Raiders signed veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins on April 6, and the four-time Pro Bowler is the perfect mentor for Mendoza, given their very similar personalities.
Raiders general manager John Spytek spoke on the impending quarterback competition while appearing on “The Rich Eisen Show” on Monday.
“Just a lot of respect for Kirk, the player, and still think he’s got a lot of good football left in him, too,” Spytek said. “We’re trying to load that room up. It’s the most important room in sports, in my opinion, and we’re trying to load that room up with people that can play, throw the football, and be real people.”
When Eisen noted that Cousins must want to be the Raiders’ Week 1 starter, Spytek said, “Well, he should want that. I wouldn’t want him to come here if he didn’t want to start Week 1. I wouldn’t want anybody in that room that doesn’t want to start. I’ve had great conversations with Kirk, and he understands he’s the most proven quarterback in that room. […] He’s gonna get a shot to go out there and to be the guy first that takes the first reps.”
Spytek referenced Cousins’ success in Kubiak’s scheme as giving Cousins a “leg up” in the QB1 competition.
Before serving as the offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl-winning Seattle Seahawks last season, Kubiak was Cousins’ quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator with the Minnesota Vikings from 2019 to 2021.
Eisen also hosted Mendoza on Monday, and Mendoza said he would “sit down […] with a smile on my face” if the Raiders’ coaching staff wanted to start Cousins in 2026.
“I believe everything should be earned, not given,” Mendoza said. “So, I think that would be a great opportunity to walk into, trying to earn something.”
Mendoza earned his stature as the presumptive No. 1 overall pick by leading the Indiana Hoosiers to an unprecedented 16-0 season punctuated by the first national title in program history.
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