Fernando Mendoza played his first NFL snaps on Sunday, and ESPN spent Wednesday explaining that it meant almost nothing about the Raiders’ quarterback plan. That reads like a dodge until you look at the record.
Dan Graziano put it plainly: “Kirk Cousins is in no danger of being benched any time soon.” He also laid out the thinking behind the cameo. “The Raiders were happy to get Mendoza’s feet wet, but they remain in no hurry to make him their starter, especially sitting at 3-2 themselves.”
That last clause is the whole argument. Las Vegas is 3-2. Teams at 3-2 in October do not hand the offense to a rookie quarterback, no matter where he was drafted.
What the debut actually was
Mendoza, the No. 1 overall pick, entered with Las Vegas trailing 45-17 against the Patriots. He went 6-of-8 for 48 yards and got one drive, which ended in a turnover on downs. That is a mop-up appearance in a game that was decided, and it should be read as one.
Jeremy Fowler’s framing is the right one: “Sunday’s lopsided loss was a reminder that Mendoza will play sooner or later.” The No. 1 overall pick is going to start NFL games. Nothing about Sunday moved that date closer, and nothing about Sunday needed to.
Cousins has not played his way out of the job
Here are Cousins’ numbers this season: 1,269 passing yards, 12 touchdowns and four interceptions. His 64.8 QBR ranks 12th among qualified passers per ESPN.com. Twelfth is not a problem a team solves by benching a veteran for a rookie in the middle of a season it is still alive in.
Twelve touchdowns against four interceptions is also the kind of split that keeps a locker room steady. A quarterback change is a decision you make when the current one is losing you games. Cousins has not been, and the Raiders would be trading a competent passer for a quarterback with eight NFL throws.
The counterpoint is reasonable. Las Vegas has lost two straight, and one of them was 45-17, which is not the kind of loss you explain away with a quarterback rating. But that score belongs to a lot of people on that roster, and plenty of them are not playing quarterback.
Where this actually turns
The schedule is the thing to watch. Five of the Raiders’ next seven games before their bye come against teams that made the playoffs last season. That stretch will answer the question for them. Come out of it at 6-4 or better and Cousins finishes the year under center, because you do not interrupt a playoff push to develop a rookie. Come out of it at 4-6 and the entire framing changes, because at that point Mendoza’s development becomes the most valuable thing left on the calendar.
So Graziano’s reporting and Fowler’s reporting are both right and they are not in conflict. Cousins is safe now. Mendoza plays eventually. The variable between those two statements is the next seven weeks, and the Raiders have given themselves until roughly their bye to find out which version of this season they are in.
Getting a rookie’s feet wet in a blowout is good organizational housekeeping. It falls well short of a plan, and the Raiders have been honest about that.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.