- 9 minutes ago
Alex Curry and Brock Vereen break down John Spytek and the Las Vegas Raiders' handling of the quarterback position, flipping Kirk Cousins to Minnesota for a third-round draft pick while officially handing the starting offense over to rookie Fernando Mendoza. Brock lays out why facing Mike Macdonald’s Seattle Seahawks defense in Week 10 is the ultimate trial by fire, and shares the advice veteran safety Ryan Mundy gave him before his own first NFL start.
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00:00So I might be sad about the Rams not doing anything at the trade deadline, but the Raiders, you guys,
00:07whoo, that was kind of a masterclass by their GM spy tech on what to do at the quarterback position.
00:15Like, the Raiders only paid Cousins $650,000. They got nine solid games out of Kirk Cousins, six plus months
00:26of their number one overall pick in Fernando Mendoza to learn the system and be mentored by Kirk Cousins.
00:32And then when they believed he was ready, they ended up getting a third round pick for Cousins.
00:37Couldn't have mapped it out better. I could not have mapped this out.
00:41It's insane.
00:41It is. It is. It's almost like they planned this thing out.
00:46They were going to hand over the reins to Fernando Mendoza once they were confirmed or close to being statistically
00:55eliminated from the playoffs.
00:58And at most, I would say that was going to be four games away.
01:04So do you get rid of Kirk Cousins, receive a third round pick as you are stacking up picks in
01:10what may be a really solid receiver draft, a solid tight end draft as well, maybe some more weapons for
01:16Mendoza?
01:16Yeah, you trade away the three extra weeks of prep for Mendoza for maybe him getting a starting caliber weapon
01:28in the draft this next year.
01:29That is a trade you make 10 times out of 10.
01:31That is incredible, you guys. And like I said earlier, like both sides win.
01:36Now Kirk Cousins gets to go back to a system he is very familiar with, go back to a team
01:42that is actually fighting for a playoff spot.
01:44And he is getting paid by three teams right now.
01:48Still getting paid by Atlanta.
01:49He's getting paid by Vegas and he's getting paid by Minnesota.
01:52That man, that man has made his money and it is impressive.
01:56And just I saw these memes of Justin Jefferson just like jumping for joy, getting him back like he's got
02:06to be like everybody wins.
02:07So, but who wins, I guess the most right now is going to be Fernando Mendoza.
02:13Because if you've watched any of the games of him on the sidelines, he is fully dressed.
02:18He is like running through, like pretending like he's about to go in to be that kind of ready for
02:24this moment this weekend.
02:26So he gets his first start against Seattle and it's going to be a challenge, an extremely tough challenge for
02:34Fernando against Seattle and one of the best defenses in the league.
02:39If you told me before the season that Fernando Mendoza was going to start at some point this year and
02:46you asked me to pick what is the worst possible game for him to start,
02:49I would say week 10 versus the Seattle Seahawks, but we're here and it's not going to change and Fernando
02:56Mendoza doesn't need to go get a win Sunday.
02:58If he can walk away with three or four series where they move the ball, they got points, they got
03:03first downs.
03:04He was put in some third down situations and was able to get out of them, whether it was scrambling,
03:09whether it was finding someone downfield.
03:11And if they could land three or four explosive plays on this defense, that is a win, not on the
03:16stat sheet, but in the development of Fernando Mendoza.
03:19So that's what I'm looking for.
03:20And I do think he is capable of doing that.
03:23If this game was in Seattle and you factor in crowd noise, I'd be looking at it a little shaky,
03:28but at least it's at home.
03:29And you know that the Raider faithful are going to turn up because they want to show up for their
03:36future of the franchise.
03:37Take us into that locker room today.
03:41Like it's officially official.
03:43Now you're looking ahead at the Seahawks.
03:46How much does your game plan change?
03:47The game plan doesn't change if they've done, if they've been doing a great job of developing Fernando Mendoza, which
03:56I fully believe Clint Kubiak and Kirk Cousins and everyone else involved with the offensive coaching staff have done because
04:01this plan has been in place for months now.
04:05So every single week they plan and prepare Kirk to go out there and win a game, but everyone also
04:12knows the B-plot is to prep Fernando, and I'm positive every single week, specific time, whether it's on field
04:20work, whether it's during walkthroughs, whether it's during film, time has been set aside with Clint Kubiak and the offensive
04:26staff specifically for Fernando because other than winning games this year, it's been about his development.
04:32So I honestly don't feel it's going to be that big of a change in regards to the day-to
04:39-day preparation for this team.
04:40Well, let's hear from John Spitek because he explained why they believed Fernando was ready.
04:45We did want to say and confirm that Fernando will be the starting quarterback going forward.
04:50It's something that he's worked very hard for since the moment he walked into this building.
04:57He passed every test.
04:59I want to stop short of saying he's earned it, but he put us in a position where we had
05:03to make a really hard decision today with his growth as a person, as a teammate, as a leader, as
05:08a quarterback.
05:09And this is for Raider Nation and for this entire building.
05:11This in no way signifies that we are punting on this season or looking forward to 2027.
05:16That is not the intention of this.
05:18We have a big game this week against the defending world champs, and we intend to attack it like we
05:23would any week.
05:25That's expected of us.
05:26That's expected from ownership from Raider Nation, from this entire building.
05:29And we want to make sure that that's noted and said.
05:31I don't think anyone sees his move as like punting the season because Raider fans were calling for Fernando Mendoza
05:37a couple weeks ago.
05:38But I do think people need to temper their expectations and realize it is going to be a very different
05:45situation, a very different game going from one of the more respected veterans in the league with Kirk Cousins to
05:52now the number one overall pick, making his very first start against the toughest defense in the league.
05:58These next two weeks are going to be tough.
06:00There are going to be some very ugly moments.
06:02There's going to be memes.
06:04There's going to be clips.
06:06There's going to be emojis.
06:07There's going to be interceptions.
06:09There may be a pick six or two.
06:10These are two of the toughest defenses that you can face.
06:14The Raiders still have no run game, and the Raiders are limited offensively in the receiver department.
06:19However, in regards of what does a successful second half of the season look like for Fernando Mendoza, the remaining
06:28games are Seattle, Denver, Cleveland, Chargers, Broncos, Tennessee, Arizona, Kansas City.
06:35I see potential wins week 12 at Cleveland, week 14 against the Chargers because there's a bye week in between
06:43there as well, week 16 versus Tennessee, week 17 at Arizona.
06:49Successful on paper for Fernando Mendoza is winning three of those games.
06:52Kirk Cousins got four wins in nine games.
06:55If Fernando can come in for the second half of the season and get three wins in eight games, you
06:59are far ahead of where you thought you would be heading into next year.
07:04But it's more about the wins and losses for Fernando regarding his development.
07:08From this Sunday against Seattle to week 18 at Kansas City, we need to see the game look slower for
07:16Fernando.
07:16This first game, his feet are going to be kind of erratic.
07:20He may be too locked in on his first read.
07:23That's fine.
07:24If by week 18, the game looks slower, he looks more comfortable, less jittery, that's a win.
07:31You want to see more on his plate by week 18 against Kansas City than will be against Seattle.
07:37You want to see more formations, more motions, more shifts, more complex schemes and concepts.
07:44He's not going to have a run game, so a lot of it's going to have to be in the
07:47air.
07:47But if there's more on his plate offensively, if the play sheet is 40 plays instead of 20 plays, I
07:53guess 60 plays instead of 40 plays, that's a win.
07:56One, accuracy percentage.
07:57I don't care about how many touchdown passes he throws, how many yards he throws.
08:01I care about completion percentage.
08:04We want the completion percentage week 18 against Kansas City to be better than it is this Sunday against Seattle.
08:10And lastly, you just want him to be more aggressive.
08:13I expect a lot of checkdowns.
08:14I expect a lot of three-step.
08:16I expect a lot of throws behind the line of scrimmage this Sunday against Seattle.
08:19But week 18 against Kansas City, we want to see him pushing the ball downfield.
08:23We want to see him finding Trey Tucker the way that Kirk Cousins was finding Trey Tucker downfield.
08:27So I see him getting at least three wins.
08:30You want to be optimistic he'll get four for the final eight weeks.
08:34But more importantly, that checklist are the things you're looking for for the future of the Raiders.
08:39I'm looking at this, and I'll give him two.
08:41Okay.
08:41I'll give him two against the Chargers and the Titans.
08:43Okay.
08:44But what do you say, like, before your first NFL game?
08:46I have to imagine the nerves are just insane.
08:50And it's completely different when you're a quarterback in the face of a franchise and carrying this team.
08:55Like, literally putting this team on your back.
08:57What is something that you can do or that someone said to you that made you feel at ease heading
09:03into your first game?
09:04What makes this situation so advantageous for Fernando is before my first start,
09:13I forget what week it was.
09:15It was in the second month of the season.
09:17But before my first start, I had a really established Super Bowl-winning safety next to me in Ryan Mundy,
09:25who said, don't overthink it.
09:27Just go out there.
09:27And if you have questions, just ask me.
09:29And I was like, okay, cool.
09:31And worst come to worst, as a safety, just backpedal.
09:34Like, if you forget who your man is, what the play is, where he's supposed to be, just backpedal and
09:39don't let anybody behind you,
09:40and you'll figure it out when you get to the sideline.
09:43What you say to Fernando, though, because you have been prepping him, is different.
09:47And it's not don't think too much.
09:50It's this is what you've been waiting for.
09:52Like, when you got drafted here, they sat you down and told you, hey, we don't plan to play you
09:58this year unless we have to.
10:00Maybe we will, but we're still going to develop you.
10:03It may be a little ahead of schedule, but what SpyTech and Kirk, in his parting words,
10:08and Tom Brady probably at some point this week are all going to say to Fernando is, you've been ready
10:14for this.
10:14Just go out there and do it.
10:15Like, you don't have to worry about overthinking about anything.
10:18Just go do what you've been preparing to do for the first half of the year.
10:22And I can't wait to see it.
10:23I'm excited to hear his, like, he's going to give some sort of pump-up pregame speech.
10:28It's got to be Fernando.
10:29But to have the GOAT, too, and Tom Brady, like, a part of your franchise and giving you that talk,
10:34yeah.
10:38That's lucky.
10:38That's lucky and that's special.
10:40I'm excited to see what Fernando Mendoza is going to do in Vegas.