The Las Vegas Raiders will have a new QB1 after the front office decided to trade Kirk Cousins to the Minnesota Vikings for a 2027 third-round pick. Moreover, the Silver and Black have named Fernando Mendoza their QB1 ahead of their Week 9 game against the Seattle Seahawks.
Cousins allowed Mendoza to spend half of the season learning and preparing for this moment. Having the veteran to learn from allowed the No. 1 pick from this year’s draft to have a mentor when it comes to learning head coach Klint Kubiak’s offense and being a leader for an NFL team.
With the Mendoza era now beginning, former Raiders general manager Tom Telesco shared his thoughts on the Silver and Black plan that eventually led to the decision to trade Cousins and have a new QB1.
“I think they’ve played this quarterback transition period perfectly, and they had a plan going in,” Telesco said during a Nov. 10 appearance on AM 570. “They talked about the plan right after they drafted Fernando Mendoza as far as how they’re going to approach the season, and they stuck to the plan. Believe me, from someone who has worked there, that hasn’t always been the case.
“Right now, they had a plan, they totally stuck to it, and it’s worked out perfectly. Kirk Cousins was the perfect quarterback to bring in to bridge the gap. He’s a great teammate; he’s a true pro. He’s a great mentor for Fernando.”
It Was Time for Fernando Mendoza to Start Playing
Meanwhile, it felt like the time had come for the Raiders to hand the reins to Mendoza, as the team needs to see what its rookie QB can do in game action. While there’s plenty Mendoza can learn from watching Cousins, some aspects of playing in the NFL can only be understood through firsthand experience.
“Now you’ve got Fernando, who developed organically into this for the second half of the season and gets a chance to play, which, from a fan standpoint, we’re all just waiting for Fernando to play,” Telesco added.
“We all want to watch him play. We want to see him develop. It was just a matter of time before it was going to happen. But I just think their plan worked out exactly the way they had hoped it would.”
Raiders Could Look Different With Fernando Mendoza
Moreover, Telesco noted that the playbook that Mendoza will be running against the Seahawks will likely be different than what Cousins was running, given that the veteran had a vast amount of experience in this offense from Kubiak.
“There’s no doubt the offense he’ll run with the Raiders is not going to be the exact same offense that Kirk Cousins was running,” Telesco said. “Kirk Cousins just has a much bigger volume, a bigger library of what he’s seen in the league. So they’ll probably water it down a little bit, which is fine.
“He’s a young quarterback, and they’re going to have to move him in slowly. Part of the reason why he didn’t start early this year is the offense is not completely built out yet. This is going to be a couple-year process to get more playmakers on offense.”
Former Raiders GM Gets Real on QB1 Transition to Fernando Mendoza