Las Vegas Raiders fans, after years of watching their team struggle and hopelessly try to address the quarterback position, certainly don’t need to curb their enthusiasm about Fernando Mendoza. Their expectations, at least early in his career? Perhaps. But everything points to him being a franchise guy.
Mendoza will first have to break into the starting lineup and win a position battle with veteran Kirk Cousins before even having the chance to prove all of his supporters right or his doubters wrong. But that hasn’t prevented some credible analysts from already pumping up the Mendoza hype train.
On the latest episode of The Mina Kimes Show, ESPN analysts Mina Kimes and Ben Solak engaged in a current NFL quarterbacks draft, effectively ranking each of the 32 starting signal-callers in the league. Mendoza came in at No. 16 already, but more importantly, ahead of several notable names.
ESPN’s Ben Solak and Mina Mines rank Las Vegas Raiders’ Fernando Mendoza No. 16 QB in NFL
Solak was the one who turned in the card for Mendoza with the 16th pick, which is a great ranking for a young player who has yet to play an NFL snap. He justified the selection by pointing out how great a prospect Mendoza is, and how easy it is to see that success translating to the pro ranks.
“I’ll take Mendoza here at 16. Mendoza is a really good prospect,” Solak explained. “He’d have been a top-five quarterback in any single draft. Ideal height, weight, size. He’s got excellent arm talent. It’s a little bit more of the Trevor Lawrence conversation, the Josh Allen conversation, where it’s, ‘(They) can make every throw, (but) it’s not going to be on the And-1 highlight mixtape, but very clearly has it.’ Excellent processor, great accuracy, has scramble ability, has tackle-breaking ability.
“There is the fabricated concerns about him coming into the league: The concerns with the under-center drop-backs and what does he look like timing-wise, no RPOs. I’m extremely confident in the processor that I saw at Indiana. I’m also confident in the individual and the way that he’s prepared and gone through the pre-draft process in anticipation of the offense he’s going to play.”
While these glowing words are certainly important, how Mendoza is perceived compared to his peers will always matter a great deal. Notably, Mendoza is slotted in ahead of recent Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks like Jalen Hurts (No. 17) and Sam Darnold (No. 19), which is quite a feat.
Denver Broncos starter Bo Nix is at No. 20, which is sure to aggravate the Raiders’ AFC West counterparts. Future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers, albeit the ghost of Aaron Rodgers, is No. 30, while Geno Smith is also way back in the rankings at No. 28.
Another interesting component of this ranking is that Mendoza is ahead of young quarterbacks from recent drafts who already have NFL experience, like Cam Ward, Tyler Shough, Jaxson Dart and Bryce Young, who were ranked No. 22 through No. 25 in this exercise.
And Solak gave a lot of credit to the Raiders for the situation that they now have Mendoza walking into, from an improved offensive line, to great young weapons like Brock Bowers and Ashton Jeanty, to the Klint Kubiak of it all.
“I think landing in a Klint Kubak offense is going to be good for him in that regard because Klint’s been really good at getting multiple quarterbacks who did not necessarily major in this style of play to become successful with some of the rollout stuff, the half-field stuff. And then he also gets a Brock Bowers-Ashton Jeanty sort of an offense that I think has the weapons, and an offensive line that isn’t great, but I think will be good enough that it won’t ‘David Carr’ him. And so, Fernando Mendoza here at 16, I want to be buying on the future of this young guy relative to some of the more average veterans who I think are good players. But Mendoza gives me a high tail outcome that those guys don’t.”
Yes, a lot of this has to do with projection. But it has been a long time since both the short and long-term prognoses for a Las Vegas quarterback have been this high. If he could even be better than half of the aforementioned players in his inaugural season, it would be a massive win.
But if he is better than all of them as a rookie, then the NFL needs to watch out. The Raiders might have a special one on their hands.
