Why one coach is 'kind of surprised' by Raiders' Fernando Mendoza love

Since at least this past January, just about every noteworthy analyst and reporter has predicted that the Las Vegas Raiders will happily make Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza the first overall pick of the 2026 NFL Draft on the night of April 23. 

A recent story detailed how new Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak and general manager John Spytek have grown only more impressed with Mendoza amid their predraft research of the prospect. However, it appears one coach who faced Indiana during the first half of the 2025 college season isn't as in love with Mendoza as the Raiders seem to be this spring. 

Should Raiders not select Fernando Mendoza with overall pick No. 1?

For an article published on Wednesday, the unnamed coach told Bruce Feldman of The Athletic that he is "kind of surprised" Mendoza will be the top choice of a player-selection process. 

"I don’t know if he has an elite skill set," the coach said about Mendoza. "He does a lot of things really well. But those first-pick-in-the-draft guys, they usually have some kind of elite skill, whether it’s freaky arm strength or athleticism. Generational talents. I was in the NFL and we had one of those guys, and it was easy to see why he was the first pick of the draft, the first day he went to OTAs. It’s that tangible ability." 

That's not an entirely shocking opinion, as it was revealed back in January that certain "NFL people" did not view Mendoza at that time as "at the same level as guys like Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence or Caleb Williams." More recently, one general manager noted that Mendoza is not a "generational quarterback prospect." 

That said, it seems nobody other than former NFL quarterback/current analyst Dan Orlovsky and former general manager Mike Tannenbaum thinks that even a couple of teams have Alabama Crimson Tide star Ty Simpson ranked as the top quarterback in this year's draft class ahead of Mendoza. 

"The biggest thing" that changed about Fernando Mendoza during his final college season

NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated previously shared that people within the Raiders believe that Mendoza "consistently got better" during his final college campaign. The coach who spoke with Feldman echoed that take. 

"The biggest thing I saw from him was the growth he made throughout last season," the coach added about Mendoza. "The first game against Old Dominion, he was OK, but he just kept taking big jumps from week to week." 

Those big jumps almost certainly will result in the Raiders acquiring Mendoza on the fourth Thursday of April. Meanwhile, Simpson may slide out of the draft's first round entirely before he hears his name called.