Fernando Mendoza Struggling Through Training Camp

There is an expected adjustment period for Mendoza. Even his new head coach expected growing pains. 

"There will never be a perfect game or a perfect practice, but I think he's doing a good job. I don't expect him to be perfect right now,” Klint Kubiak said in the first week of training camp.

The Raiders are not going to have any concerns if Mendoza isn’t ready to play at the start of the season. Kirk Cousins is the projected starter while Mendoza improves.

However, Mendoza was the first pick of the draft. The Raiders could have chosen any player, and they decided Mendoza would be the guy to have the biggest positive impact on the franchise. 

There should be some expectations (like being able to handle snaps) for a player drafted that highly. McFadden wrote that Cousins has looked better than Mendoza through training camp, which creates an easy and interesting comparison: Is Mendoza better than Cousins? 

NFL coaches and executives just ranked Kirk Cousins as one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the league. Even at the very start of his career, the Raiders have to hope Mendoza is better than the five worst starting quarterbacks. Otherwise he has a mountain of development to climb to become the quarterback that turns the franchise around. 

Bouncing Back

Early in camp Kubiak set a clear objective for Mendoza to learn from problems and mistakes. 

“We expect a lot out of him as these practices start coming. So the thing that stands out to me, he’s going to have plenty of adversity, like his teammates. How does he deal with it? Does he make the same mistake twice? How quickly can he correct himself? When he does make a mistake, what’s his attitude like? What’s his demeanor like? Those are really important things for quarterbacks,” Kubiak said to reporters.

One of the trends for Mendoza has been improving. After struggling with snaps, he completed five straight passes in a two-minute drill. After a slow start to a practice, he finished strong with multiple touchdown passes in a red zone drill. 

It appears as though Mendoza gets better with time in each practice. That is what Kubiak was hoping to see from the start of training camp. 

Ultimately, Mendoza’s performance in his first training camp won’t dictate the success of his career. Even if he takes a full year to truly be ready to take over, the Raiders are prepared with Cousins keeping the seat warm.