Las Vegas Raiders Select Fernando Mendoza 1st Overall | He's The Next SUPERSTAR QB

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With the first pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, the Las Vegas Raiders select, for Nando Mendoza

quarterback from Indiana, Lockdown NFL Draft is sponsored by Kalshi Trade Draft, picks

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I am to Nietzsche Batista, and I'm joined now by your boy, Q, from Lockdown Raiders and

Q. Heisman Trophy winner, national champion, and his LinkedIn profile, so he's actually

a processed driven and detailed, oriental leader, but I'll judge the side.

What makes for Nando Mendoza that cornerstone the Raiders want to build his franchise around?

Well, he's a winner, and you just rattling off everything that he's, you know, has accomplished

already and his profile, and even saying his name, national champion, and Heisman Trophy,

he puts a bigger smile on my face because I realize now with his mentality, with his

work ethic, with what he brings to the table, what he learned when he was at Cal and took

to Indiana and turned that into even bigger, you know, a bigger deal.

And like I said, winning the Heisman Trophy, it just gets you excited for what the future

could be for the Raiders.

They have their franchise quarterback.

Like you said, he's driven by process.

He's like the guy who's part minority owner of the Raiders in Tom Brady.

So yeah, it's an exciting time, and he's going to bring a lot to his franchise.

More importantly, Raider Nation has hope now that they've got their franchise quarterback.

Hope indeed.

And since you mentioned Tom Brady, having mentors like Tom Brady in the building and Kirk

Cousins who we'll talk about a little bit later, but how helpful is it to have those

kinds of guys in that building to help Mendoza get ready for his rookie season?

It's incredible.

It really is.

And Mendoza looked up to Tom Brady and that was his guy.

That was his hero.

How much easier is it for him to go to work now and be a sponge to that guy and just

have him pour into him his knowledge and look, Tom Brady wasn't a number one overall

pick.

I remember he was number one ninety nine, so he's going to have a little bit of a chip

on his shoulder.

He's going to have a little bit of edge and teach him what it's going to take to not

only make it in the National Football League, but have a long, long career where he has

a lot of winning.

I think it's it's priceless.

You can't really put a number on what Fernando Mendoza is going to get from Tom Brady and

Kirk Cousins as well.

Look, let's make no mistake about it.

He's been in the league a dozen years, right?

And one, he's the financial king when it comes to the NFL.

I mean, the dude just keeps casher checks and casher checks, but he knows the Kubiak.

He knows the system.

He played really well in Minnesota when Kubiak was the offensive coordinator.

So he's going to be able to not necessarily teach Fernando Mendoza like this is what you

have to do.

And this is what this means.

But he'll be able to be that example and Fernando Mendoza is a student.

So he's going to study what Kirk Cousins does and that's going to help him transition

to being a pro.

Yeah, and I think Kirk Cousins bringing in that experience, as you mentioned, from the

Vikings, even here in Atlanta with a little mentoring, albeit a little bit of an awkward

situation.

What's the mentoring of a young guy in Michael Pinnick's junior?

I think that helps to kind of set the stage for Mendoza.

And as you mentioned, having the relationship with Kubiak already speaks volumes for Kirk

Cousins.

But the Raiders drafting Mendoza and having a quarterback risk for like head coach Plank

Kubiak, a quarterback's coach and Mike Sullivan, what do you think the focus is going to be

in your one in terms of development?

I think it's going to be all about just getting comfortable, understanding the position,

understanding what it means to be a pro, understanding what it means to be the starting

quarterback in the national football league where all eyes are on you.

And you know how it is.

It's going to be, you know, he's going to get all the praise or he'll get all the blame.

It's one way or the other.

There's no middle grounds, right?

And I'm going to say, well, the defense wasn't very good.

Our all the offensive line didn't know it's going to be Mendoza this, Mendoza that.

So he's going to have to learn what that's all about with, you know, the good and the

bad.

But the good thing is he's got it between the ears.

I mean, he really does.

The dude is is so sharp.

And he's so intelligent and he's going to be able to handle all the X's and those picking

up the playbook.

Like I have no worries about that at all.

It's just how do you manage a work week?

How do you go to rehab?

When do you go to, you know, rehab and get the treatment on your body?

When do you do this?

When do you do that?

He's going to have to learn the little nuances, but I think he's going to be just fine.

And again, he's a student of the game.

He mentioned the other day that he studied the Kirk Cousins film.

He studied a lot of Sam Darnel film.

He was even looking at a, at Mass Stafford film this past year, just because these guys

have been there done at such a high level.

So he's just going to be a sponge.

And I think that that's what they're going to do is try to pour in as much information

as possible, as much as he can process.

And I think he can process a lot.

I think he can process a lot too.

And with the Raiders drafting, Mendoza, but like we said, they picked up Kirk Cousins

in free agency.

I mean, do you think the plan is to ramp up Mendoza to be that Raiders starter week one

or do you more anticipate?

Well, maybe start with Kirk and eventually Mendoza gets his opportunity.

I think the plan is to start with Kirk.

I really do.

And then allow it to ease into Fernando Mendoza.

But honestly, I think that they're going to play him when he's ready.

So if in training camp, he's out there balling out and looks like he's got control of

the offense, the huddle, the players, the locker room.

If he has that, then by all means, he'll be out there starting.

I think if Kirk Cousins comes out and struggles, I think they'll put Mendoza in pretty quickly.

The problem is, if Kirk Cousins goes out there and balls and the Raiders are actually

winning some games, it may be a little bit of a delayed process.

And that's okay too.

If you're winning games, something this organization hasn't done in quite a while, that's a good

problem to have.

So I think that they're in a great position to have options and that's all you really

want.

Sometimes you have two quarterbacks and it's like two quarterbacks.

You have no quarterbacks.

In this case, you're more correct in that they have an embarrassment of riches with a Mendoza

and with a Cousins.

Thank you so much.

Q.

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