During Indiana’s pro day on Wednesday, Fernando Mendoza only elevated his already high draft stock.
Mendoza, who won the Heisman Trophy and led the Hoosiers to a national title last season, reportedly completed 53-of-56 passes in front of NFL personnel in Bloomington.
Mendoza showed off his arm strength, perhaps most notably on this deep ball that impressed ESPN’s Louis Riddick, and reportedly Las Vegas Raiders general manager John Spytek, too.
Riddick had a bunch of good things to say about Mendoza after that throwing session.
“It’s his presence, man,” Riddick told ESPN’s Field Yates. “It’s a lot of the unspoken, intangible part of the evaluation that you get and that really jumps out at you when you’re around this young man. We can talk about how smooth he looked working from a simulated under center snap, what his footwork looked like … how tight the spiral was.
“… But it’s the way in which he commanded himself, from the time he walked out on this field to the time he came over here and sat down and talked with me and answered the questions that he answered. It just kind of oozed franchise-caliber quarterback type of stuff.”
Mendoza is projected to go No. 1 overall to the Raiders later this month.