NFL insider expands on warning for Raiders about Fernando Mendoza, Kirk Cousins decision

NFL insider Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk/NBC Sports recently warned first-year Las Vegas Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak that Kubiak could eventually have a player mutiny on his hands if rookie Fernando Mendoza impresses his teammates via training-camp and preseason-game performances but isn't named the team's Week 1 starting quarterback over veteran Kirk Cousins.

Some have compared the plan expected to be embraced by Kubiak and Raiders minority owner Tom Brady to how the Kansas City Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes in 2017 and then sat him as a rookie behind Alex Smith. For an article published on Friday, Florio addressed why the Raiders' situation differs from how the Chiefs handled things nearly a decade ago.

Why the Raiders may not be able to follow the Patrick Mahomes, Alex Smith plan

"The Chiefs pulled that off with Patrick Mahomes nine years ago because the Chiefs were a perennial playoff team under Alex Smith," Florio wrote. "The Raiders are a perennial also-ran, running behind the other teams in the AFC West. If the locker room thinks Mendoza is, to use Cousins’s term, 'the best player,' the locker room won’t be thrilled with the idea of keeping Fernando parked in the garage like a Ferrari, opting instead to tool around in a Fiat."

Mendoza reportedly "had his fair share of growing pains, especially when playing under center, and mastering the footwork that comes with it" throughout workouts held during the offseason program. If such issues still exist when Las Vegas opens the preseason with a game versus the Arizona Cardinals on Aug. 13, questions about whether or not Mendoza should be named the Raiders' Week 1 QB1 may disappear. 

That said, it's possible that Mendoza could flip a figurative switch and look like a different player against opposing defenses next month. Meanwhile, the Raiders haven't won a playoff game since January 2003 and haven't participated in a postseason contest since January 2022.

Should Raiders give Fernando Mendoza a real chance to win the starting job? 

"The days of the five-year plan in the NFL ended closer to five decades than five years ago," Florio added. "Life in the NFL happens one season at a time. Veteran players don’t want a year in which players less than the best available at all positions aren’t playing. Put simply, the Raiders haven’t been good enough to put the better player on the bench. If that’s Mendoza, he needs to play."

It remains to be seen if those associated with the Raiders will view Mendoza as "the better player" after Las Vegas ends its preseason with a matchup against the San Francisco 49ers on Aug. 27.