{"id":694252,"date":"2026-06-09T21:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/694252\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T21:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:12:10","slug":"fernando-mendoza-ive-grown-leaps-and-bounds-this-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/694252\/","title":{"rendered":"Fernando Mendoza: I’ve grown leaps and bounds this offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

At some point, Fernando Mendoza will be the Raiders\u2019 starting quarterback. He\u2019s not that yet.<\/p>\n

The No. 1 overall pick is working behind Kirk Cousins and Aidan O\u2019Connell in the offseason program, paying his dues and learning the ropes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to work every single day<\/a>, and right now, I\u2019m repping with the threes and a little bit with the twos,\u201d Mendoza said Tuesday, via Sam Gordon of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. \u201cSo, right now I\u2019m just trying to prove myself and do the best in whatever rep I get and treat every rep like it\u2019s a Super Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n

New coach Klint Kubiak has repeatedly said he would prefer<\/a> that a rookie quarterback not start Day 1, and the sportsbooks like Cousins to start Week 1. But the Raiders are giving Mendoza every chance to win the job, and he is doing his best to take advantage of the opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s always a transition, especially from the college level to the NFL level, and it\u2019s having those positive stressors, and that growing period,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cThere are going to be some growing pains. Luckily, I feel confident that I\u2019m able to see the field well. My growing pains are coming from, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve got to time up my footwork a little bit with the routes,\u2019 and intricacies here and there. I\u2019m really working hard with the coaching staff, who are pushing me, and have done a phenomenal job of relaying and communicating the information needed. It\u2019s up to me take full advantage of that. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve been growing every day, from the first day of OTAs, then today at minicamp. I feel like I\u2019m leaps and bounds ahead of where I was.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At some point, Fernando Mendoza will be the Raiders\u2019 starting quarterback. He\u2019s not that yet. The No. 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-694252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}