Back in February, Raiders general manager John Spytek made clear that even if Las Vegas were to draft Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 pick of the 2026 NFL draft, the Indiana quarterback might not start right away.
"You want to limit the amount of pressure you have on that guy at the start. If you have a young quarterback, I’m not necessarily in favor of running him out there right away either,” Spyteksaid at the scouting combine, sharing his take on what is a common debate around the league (i.e., whether it benefits a rookie QB more to sit for a year or jump into play right away).
Spytek then expounded on those comments at Tuesday’s predraft news conference, when he emphasized that any QB on the Raiders’ roster will have an equal chance at winning the starting job.
“Ultimately, this is a meritocracy, and the best guy will play,” he said. “It’s just really hard to play really well at a young age, but we’ve seen plenty of quarterbacks do it recently.”
As things stand, veteran Kirk Cousins—who signed with the team in early April—and three-season backup Aidan O’Connell comprise the team’s QB room. Cousins spent last year backing up Michael Penix Jr. with the Falcons, while O’Connell spent much of his 2025 season on injured reserve. But that room is set to grow by one when the team presumably selects Mendoza at the top of the pack on April 23 in Pittsburgh.
If (once) that happens, you would think that the Raiders would be eager to hand Mendoza the keys immediately, rather than to one of two veteran players with limited to no recent starting experience. But Spytek sounded pretty confident that a rookie might not be the better option, at least not definitively.
“We all want to see the young guys play, we want to see them play well, but we don’t want to put anybody out there, regardless of the position, who’s not ready.”
“A lot of these guys, they live their entire life in shotgun,” Spytek went on. “They don’t huddle. So you really got to teach some of these guys how to run a huddle, how to break a huddle, how to get under center and call a cadence because you see so many of them clap now, too. It’s far beyond learning a playbook, which in and of itself is hard enough. When you can be patient—and we all understand there’s not a ton of patience in the job that we chose here—but if you can find some level of patience and put people in positions when they’re ready, that’s the best way forward.”
The quarterback position has been a huge question mark for Las Vegas in recent years, and the team won’t be able to complete its much-needed rebuild without a genuinely strong player leading the charge out on the field. You could argue that the team has little to gain by giving Cousins and O’Connell a shot over Mendoza, considering neither has done as much of late. Still, the team’s plan to let the best player win is definitely the right one.
Here’s why.
Raiders are right to stage QB competition between Mendoza, Cousins and O’Connell
Assuming Vegas does draft Mendoza, the team’s willingness to sit him (at least to start the season) is a smart one.
The 22-year-old Indiana export is a talented player and deserves plenty of credit for leading the Hoosiers to an undefeated season and a CFP title. But the transition to the pros is not easy, and Mendoza will have his work cut out for him to play well with a team that’s finished its past two seasons 3–14 and 4–13. Plus, to Spytek’s earlier point, Mendoza didn’t take many snaps under center with IU, and would be joining what figures to be a much different offense in Vegas. Learning behind a vet—either one who has plenty of experience with the league, or one with plenty of experience with the Raiders themselves—will ensure that when he does take to the field, he is successful enough to avoid flaming out.
Cousins, meanwhile, has been around the block. Although he lost his starting gig in Atlanta, he is a mature veteran who can handle whatever the game throws at him (and has even worked with head coach Klint Kubiak before). O’Connell, on the other hand, is already familiar with the Vegas offense and organization, and could demonstrate best practices for the fledgling Fernando. In either case, Mendoza could still take over if needed or still beat out either player over the offseason. But the team will not pressure him into the huddle in Week 1, and that’s the wise move, no doubt.
“We all want to play, but I made this clear to Klint: The best player needs to play,” Cousins said last week. “If that’s not me, I don’t want to be out there. I don’t think that’s the best thing for the team. If I’m not the best, then I believe it’s important that those guys are out there.”
The last quarterback selected with the No. 1 pick who did not immediately play was Baker Mayfield with the Browns in 2018. Otherwise, Cam Ward, Caleb Williams, Bryce Young, Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow and Kyler Murray—the previous six QB’s to go No. 1—started in Week 1 of their respective rookie years. And you could say they all struggled in their debuts, save for Burrow, whose promising year was cut short by a knee injury, and Murray, who won Rookie of the Year.
Ultimately, to start or to sit your rookie is surely not a straightforward calculus, and you could nitpick the previous examples to better fit any take on the matter. But considering the fact that the Raiders would no doubt prefer to have a long-term fit at QB, protecting Mendoza—even if it’s against himself—seems like a win.
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BRIGID KENNEDY
Brigid Kennedy is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in November 2024, she covered political news, sporting news and culture at TheWeek.com before moving to Livingetc, an interior design magazine. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, dual majoring in television, radio and film (from the Newhouse School of Public Communications) and marketing managment (from the Whitman School of Management). Offline, she enjoys going to the movies, reading and watching the Steelers.
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