The Heisman Trophy ceremony, national championship run, media tour and draft process have made for a whirlwind several months for top pick Fernando Mendoza.
Now it’s time for him to get back to his preferred routine.
“Out of all those great milestones, I’m really happy about these past two days, because it’s back to football,” the No. 1 overall selection of the Las Vegas Raiders said after a rookie mini-camp practice Saturday at the team facility in Henderson.
Mendoza has hit the ground running in his first two days taking snaps on an NFL practice field.
While he was able to get the playbook as soon as he was drafted last week and immediately started poring over it, there is something different about being on the field and in the building where he has immediate access to his coaches and film of how coach Klint Kubiak’s past quarterbacks have executed certain aspects of the system.
“There’s something about seeing Kirk Cousins do it back in Minnesota, seeing Sam Darnold do it last year in Seattle, seeing the application and how it’s supposed to be executed and what it looks like at a high level is really beneficial for my development,” Mendoza said. “And same with going from Day 1, just seeing on the paper and taking it in, and then Day 2, last night with the coaches really studying, ‘Oh, OK. This is how Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold did it. This is how their footwork and eyes looked. So, can we put that on the field today?’ And I think we did.”
Indiana to the NFL
Mendoza knows that while his collegiate accolades and success put him in this position, they have little meaning now in terms of how he will perform for the Raiders.
“I really enjoyed college,” he said. “The Hoosiers were able to end off on a high point, but now it’s back to the bottom of the totem pole. Yesterday, I was like, ‘Wow, I have a lot to work on, and wow, the NFL players, everybody here in rookie camp, these are all really, really good players.’”
“I have a lot to learn and a lot of growing with great coaches and great players around me. I’m excited to do it.”
For now, that mostly involves learning the offense as well as the timing and pace of an NFL practice in addition to getting to know his teammates and what Kubiak expects of him and the rest of the new quarterbacks in the room.
While veterans Kirk Cousins and Aidan O’Connell will be a part of that process, the quarterback room this week includes undrafted rookie free-agent signing Jacob Clark and rookie camp invitee Sawyer Robertson.
Mendoza feels they are making solid progress on the field toward learning the basic principles of the offense. Prior to these last two days, their only exposure was in watching old film and poring through the playbook.
“It was good to be in the high altitude, get the plays down, the base, because you can be learning on a sheet of paper, but you have to put pen to paper and application, and we have Coach Kubiak and (offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan) repping it, getting on our butts about it, improving us, improving the entire offense every single day,” he said. “It’s been great, and from Day 1 to Day 2, I think we saw a lot of improvement in everybody, including myself.”
Mendoza said the primary focus right now is just dialing everything in and trying to become “more fluid with the whole operation.” That includes everything from receiving and communicating the plays to getting out of a simulated huddle to taking a snap and going through progressions, even at limited speed.
Fast and furious
Mendoza said at times it can feel like the information is coming at him “like a fire hose,” but that’s what he wants.
The process is so important, which is why the details are being stressed so heavily at this point.
“It’s great to finally be back in football and have that information, and that’s how you want it,” he said. “You want it to be overwhelming and that doesn’t need to have a negative connotation, but when you’re positively stressed by getting a lot of information, it allows you to grow.”
That opportunity to learn means Mendoza and the offense know they are from reaching their ceiling.
He believes that is a good thing.
“I think it always excites me to learn because that means there’s room for growth,” he said. “When the coaches say, ‘Hey, you have a lot to learn. You have a lot of room to grow,’ it shows that your best football is ahead of you, whether it’s any of the rookies, I believe we all have a lot of room to grow, including me. So, to hear that from the coaches, means that they see potential.”
“But potential is nothing unless you improve every single day and control the controllables. So, looking forward to growing and working my way up and earning the respect of my teammates and becoming the best player I can become to best serve them.”
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.
