{"id":507714,"date":"2026-02-27T14:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/507714\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T14:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:37:09","slug":"fernando-mendoza-excited-about-maybe-playing-for-raiders-and-tom-brady-who-hasnt-admired-tom-brady-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/507714\/","title":{"rendered":"Fernando Mendoza excited about maybe playing for Raiders and Tom Brady: ‘Who hasn’t admired Tom Brady, guys?’"},"content":{"rendered":"

This NFL Draft centers around Fernando Mendoza.<\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t many other prospects who are already household names. There\u2019s certainly not another quarterback guaranteed to be picked in the top half of the first round. The one potential ready-made star entering the NFL Draft is the Indiana quarterback who led the traditionally bereft Hoosiers to a 16-0 national championship, one of the great stories in American team sports.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s not a draft with a lot of sizzle. But there\u2019s Mendoza, who is a heavy favorite to go first overall to the Las Vegas Raiders. To nobody\u2019s surprise Mendoza said Friday at the NFL scouting combine he had a formal interview with the Raiders, in which he went over plays he ran in college and drew plays on the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a fantastic interview,\u201d Mendoza said at the podium, via The Draft Network<\/a>. \u201cI thought it was a great meeting. I know they have the prospective No. 1 pick, but anything can happen in the draft. I\u2019m just excited for the opportunity and whatever team drafts me I\u2019m going to give them everything I\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Brady is a minority owner in the Raiders and he has a say in personnel decisions, so Mendoza and Brady will be connected if the Raiders pick Mendoza as expected. The chance to be mentored by Brady is appealing to a young quarterback like Mendoza.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho hasn\u2019t admired Tom Brady, guys?\u201d Mendoza said.<\/p>\n

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Mendoza said he got a chance to talk to Brady already.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to say a brief hi on the phone to Brady. That was very special to me,\u201d Mendoza said, via WISH-TV<\/a>. \u201cLook forward to meeting him in person, hopefully, one day, and learning from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendoza was at his NFL scouting combine media availability a minute before scheduled, and at one point politely directed a question to \u201csomeone who hasn\u2019t asked yet,\u201d which tracks. Mendoza\u2019s intangibles are a big reason he played so well and why he is considered the top quarterback in the draft. He also has an NFL skill set, which is a big reason he won a Heisman Trophy.<\/p>\n

\"Fernando<\/p>\n

Fernando Mendoza, who helped lead the Indiana Hoosiers to a national championship, is expected to go first overall in the NFL Draft. (Photo by CFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

(CFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Raiders wanted the first overall pick badly enough that they shut down key players late, including defensive end Maxx Crosby against his wishes, in a pretty clear attempt to lose games. It worked and Las Vegas has been on the clock with the first pick since the season ended.<\/p>\n

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Mendoza, who mentioned a couple times as he remained humble that he isn\u2019t guaranteeing he\u2019ll be the top pick of the draft, said being a leader for any NFL team starts with playing well and that\u2019s what he\u2019s most concerned with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where all my focus goes: football, football, football,\u201d Mendoza said.<\/p>\n

Mendoza isn\u2019t a sure-fire top prospect at quarterback like some of the No. 1 overall picks of recent past. There was a stir this week when ESPN\u2019s Dan Orlovsky said Alabama\u2019s Ty Simpson, expected to be the second quarterback selected, had better tape<\/a> in the first half of the season than Mendoza. Mendoza wasn\u2019t a big high-school prospect either and became the best player in college football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a raw prospect,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cI was terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He improved from humble beginnings to likely being the first pick of the NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, the pick has not been selected yet,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cWhatever team drafts me, I\u2019m extremely grateful, Whether it\u2019s No. 1 pick or the last pick in the draft, I\u2019d be blessed and honored to be drafted by any team and give them my all.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This NFL Draft centers around Fernando Mendoza. There aren\u2019t many other prospects who are already household names. There\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,24982,103353,68477,2623,16818,593,10028,61007,5345,85,44448,254783,30663,76895],"class_list":{"0":"post-507714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-dan-orlovsky","11":"tag-fernando-mendoza","12":"tag-indiana-hoosiers","13":"tag-las-vegas","14":"tag-maxx-crosby","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-nfl-draft","17":"tag-nfl-scouting-combine","18":"tag-raiders","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-the-raiders","21":"tag-theres-mendoza","22":"tag-tom-brady","23":"tag-ty-simpson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}