![\"lane](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-83041929.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Lane Kiffin with JaMarcus Russell.<\/p>\n
The last time the Raiders<\/a> had the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NFL<\/a> Draft, things were looking up for the franchise. The team had hired a young head coach named Lane Kiffin and used the top pick to select former LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, any excitement quickly went away. Kiffin didn\u2019t make it through his second season before getting fired, and Russell went down as the biggest draft bust in NFL history.<\/p>\n Ironically, Kiffin is now the head coach at LSU, where Russell used to be a superstar. For the first time in nearly two decades, Russell and Kiffin were able to reunite for a photo-op.<\/p>\n The two didn\u2019t really get much of a chance to figure out the NFL together, but both have moved on to very different things. The timing of their reunion is interesting, considering the Raiders<\/a> are about to have the No. 1 pick in the draft for the first time since 2007.<\/p>\n Raiders Likely to Use No. 1 Pick on Very Different QB This Time Around<\/p>\n When the Raiders drafted Russell, they were gambling on one of the most impressive quarterbacks ever from a physical perspective. He\u2019s 6-foot-6, thick and was a strong athlete when he was younger. He also had one of the biggest arms in the history of football.<\/p>\n The problem with him is that he didn\u2019t take the studying side of football seriously. Likely No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza<\/a> has very strong studying habits, but he\u2019s not as physically gifted as Russell. Considering the previous experience with Russell, the Raiders are likely happy that Mendoza is very different from a personality and work ethic standpoint.<\/p>\n Matt Hasselbeck Thinks Raiders Are Lucky to Get Mendoza<\/p>\n Mendoza may not be able to throw the ball the length of the football field or run a fast 40-yard dash, but he does everything else a quarterback needs to do at a high level.<\/p>\n Former NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck is very high on Mendoza and thinks the Raiders are lucky to have the chance to draft him.<\/p>\n \u201cI know all the guys better as people than I do as players,\u201d Hasselbeck told Tyler Dunne<\/a> of Go Long. \u201cBut Fernando Mendoza, for me, checks all the boxes. I know there\u2019s a little bit of hot-take shade that\u2019s being thrown at him recently on the television. But I chalk that up to guys are running out of things to say and they want to have a hot take. I don\u2019t think any of that\u2019s real. I would hope it\u2019s not real. Fernando Mendoza is amazing. He\u2019s amazing. He\u2019s so boring to talk about because yeah, he\u2019s going to be the first pick. It\u2019s not even up for debate.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s really no one else they would consider taking first overall. It\u2019s a done deal. So I think it\u2019s almost boring for TV and talk radio. People are just coming with their hottest take and then it goes nuts on social media and then people are talking for hours about the take that I don\u2019t even think people really believe. I think they\u2019re full of garbage just trying to have a hot take. So no, Mendoza\u2019s the first overall pick and he\u2019s great. I didn\u2019t know him until the Combine or maybe I met him at the Super Bowl. But really got to know him at the Combine. The Raiders are going to be really lucky to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAustin Boyd<\/a> has covered the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Lakers for Heavy.com since 2019. A Los Angeles native now based in Las Vegas, his featured work at Heavy includes interviews with NFL stars Darren Waller and Joe Montana, and a behind-the-scenes look at “The Shop.” More about Austin Boyd<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Raiders\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Lane Kiffin with JaMarcus Russell. The last time the Raiders had the No. 1 pick in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-259774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}