Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz preview the Arizona Cardinals vs. Las Vegas Raiders preseason matchup, which will likely feature the first meeting between Carson Beck and Fernando Mendoza since the 2026 National Championship between Miami and Indiana. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.
Video Transcript
The Natty rematch is a fun little storyline that we get.
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Second of all, the fact that I am counting down the minutes until the Cardinals backups play the Raiders backups just proves how much of a sicko I am deep down inside my soul, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It’s the quarterbacks.
It’s the way that these two quarterbacks look, the way that Carson Beck took the world by storm after the Hall of Fame game, the way that Carson Beck had as effective and efficient and clean of a night as you could possibly ask of a third-round pick backup in the Hall of Fame game.
He had a great debut.
How does he follow that up?
Because we’ve seen some peaks and some valleys from, from Carson Beck in his time at Georgia and at Miami.
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We’ve seen great performances, and then we’ve seen performances where he doesn’t take care of the football, questionable throws, questionable judgment.
So can Carson Beck follow up a fantastic performance with another one?
That’s what I’m looking for, and then obviously Fernando Mendoza, number one overall pick, the 2026 cutie-patootie of the year.
How does he look as an NFL quarterback?
How does he look with NFL processing, with NFL speed, NFL defenses coming at him?
And I know he’s gonna be playing with some twos and some threes.
He’s gonna be playing against some twos and some threes, so it’s not going to be the same level of Fernando Mendoza that I’m sure Fitzy and every other Raiders fan wants him to blossom into one day.
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But this is the fir- first peek behind the curtain that we’re getting of the number one overall pick, and as Raiders fans think and hope he will be the savior of the franchise, what does he look in his NFL debut?
It’s all about the quarterbacks in this one, I think.
