The Las Vegas Raiders have named rookie Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft, their starting quarterback heading into Week 10, the team announced.
General Manager John Spytek made the call after practice, the team said, following the trade of Kirk Cousins to the Minnesota Vikings for a 2027 third-round pick. “This is something that he’s worked very hard for since the moment he’s walked into this building,” Spytek said. “He passed every test. … He put us in a position where we had to make a very hard decision today with his growth as a person, as a teammate, as a leader, as a quarterback.” Coach Klint Kubiak said Mendoza “practices extremely well and his work habits also allowed us to make this trade because we feel that he’s ready to go.” The team’s post described Spytek announcing the decision Wednesday morning after practice. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Spytek announced it Tuesday. The two accounts disagree on the day of the announcement; both say Mendoza will start Sunday.
Mendoza’s first career start will come at Allegiant Stadium against the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, the Review-Journal reported, and Spytek presented the job as his going forward. The Raiders are 4-5. Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy and a national championship at Indiana in 2025 and completed 72% of his passes for 3,535 yards and a nation-leading 41 touchdown passes as a junior, the team said. In his only regular-season appearance, a late drive in a loss to the New England Patriots, he completed 75% of his passes for 48 yards, the team said; the Review-Journal put that line at 6-for-8 for 48 yards. The newspaper also noted that only three of the 29 quarterbacks selected No. 1 overall in the draft’s common era have waited longer than the 10th game of their rookie season to start, a group that includes Eli Manning and Jared Goff at the 10th game, and that the last six top overall quarterbacks all started Week 1.