The Las Vegas Raiders traded Kirk Cousins to the Minnesota Vikings ahead of Tuesday's deadline. With Cousins now in Minnesota, the door is open for Fernando Mendoza to make his first NFL start. According to Sam Warren of The Athletic, Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak said he's not “peeling back anything” in the offense as the rookie prepares to replace Cousins as QB1.
“Raiders HC Klint Kubiak said they are not ‘peeling back anything' in their offense for Fernando Mendoza's first start. ‘We're gonna go do what the whole team does best, all 11, and then he does his part distributing the football. I'm very comfortable running our playbook with Fernando,” Warren reported.
It won't be his first career NFL appearance when Mendoza takes the field on Sunday afternoon at 4:05 PM ET against the Seattle Seahawks in Las Vegas. The 2026 No. 1 overall pick appeared late in a game earlier this season, as he went 6-8 through the air to go along with 48 total passing yards.
Mendoza represents the future of the franchise. The plan was to have Cousins handle QB1 duties to at least start this season while serving as a mentor of sorts for the young quarterback. Had Cousins not been traded, there was a chance that Mendoza could have taken over the starting job later this season regardless.
With the Raiders at 4-5 overall, it isn't as if Mendoza is simply going to be playing for the sake of experience. The idea of Mendoza leading the Raiders to the postseason is not out of the question.
In any case, all eyes will be on Fernando Mendoza's first career start in the NFL on Sunday.