Fernando Mendoza stood on the sideline thrice last month at Allegiant Stadium as quarterback Kirk Cousins drove the Las Vegas Raiders to preseason score after score after score. The veteran passer in his 15th season played three drives total in three exhibitions.
The rookie passer watched from the sideline — just as he will to start the regular season.
“Ruthlessly efficient,” Mendoza said after the preseason finale, an 18-12 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, describing Cousins operationally.
“That’s something I want to model and I want the football in the end zone, or (to) help our team put it through the uprights.”
It’s not arm talent, size or strength that have Cousins starting at 38, nearly three years removed from a torn right Achilles — and with it the prime of his 15-year career. It’s the “ruthlessly efficient” manner with which he’s running coach Klint Kubiak’s offense that has this year’s No. 1 draft pick with a headset and a clipboard, at least for now. With Cousins due to start Week 1 versus the Miami Dolphins at Allegiant Stadium, Mendoza will be the first top quarterback draft pick since Baker Mayfield in 2018 to sit Week 1 of his rookie campaign.
Playing a veteran ahead of a rookie was once commonplace in the NFL with some of its greatest-ever passers being backups throughout their rookie seasons. Accelerated development has first-year passers thriving, too, but the Raiders are bucking the modern trend for the old-school approach with the Heisman Trophy winner. Cousins underscored it with a stellar training camp, befitting amid his experience.
Mendoza must develop in the shadows for now.
Said general manager John Spytek of Mendoza: “He’s a tireless worker. He loves football. He loves his teammates. He’s energetic on the field. He’s self-critical. He’s self-aware. He’s very accurate. His time is coming, but he’s got to earn it every day and he knows that. I think we’re all very pleased with the person and his work ethic and his commitment to being a great quarterback.”
A breath or two later, Syptek denoted quarterbacks who sat as rookies: Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Jordan Love, Patrick Mahomes. He also denoted a quarterback who played that happened to be a No. 2 overall pick: Jayden Daniels of the Washington Commanders.
The point Spytek was illustrating: There isn’t a tried-and-true approach.
Brady (seven-time Super Bowl champion, three-time NFL MVP) with the New England Patriots was a backup to Drew Bledsoe as a sixth-round pick. Rodgers (Super Bowl champion, four-time MVP) was a late first-round pick by the Green Bay Packers backing up Brett Favre. Love, also a late first-round pick, was two years a backup in Green Bay to Rodgers. Mahomes (three-time Super Bowl champion, two-time MVP) was picked No. 10 overall to back up Alex Smith with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Other top draft picks in the modern era to start their rookie season on the sideline include Smith (three-time Pro Bowler, behind Tim Rattay as a No. 1 overall pick) with the San Francisco 49ers, Carson Palmer (three-time Pro Bowler, behind Jon Kitna as a No. 1 overall pick) with the Cincinnati Bengals and Eli Manning (two-time Super Bowl champion and four-time Pro Bowler, behind Kurt Warner as a No. 1 overall pick) with the New York Giants.
Then there’s Daniels, who quarterbacked Washington to two postseason wins to cap a historic rookie campaign. Other top draft picks who started as a rookies include Peyton Manning (two-time Super Bowl champion, five-time MVP) with the Indianapolis Colts, Matthew Stafford (Super Bowl champion, MVP) with the Detroit Lions, Cam Newton (MVP, three-time Pro Bowler) with the Carolina Panthers and Joe Burrow (three-time Pro Bowler) with Cincinnati.
“There’s so many examples both ways,” Kubiak said last week. “I think the most important thing with the quarterback room or any other position is to build competition within the room and that makes players so much better, faster than coaching. When they have a guy in front of them that they can look up to and they can see how something’s done, that’s going to accelerate their growth.”
That’s why the Raiders sought to sign Cousins, a four-time Pro Bowl honoree charting sixth among active passers in yards (44,700), fifth in touchdowns (298) and ninth in passer rating (96.8). What he might not have in arm strength and mobility, he has in veteran guile and know-how. Short of Mendoza outperforming him in camp, he was signed (and paid a total of $20 million guaranteed) to start.
There’s plenty for Cousins to model for Mendoza beyond dropbacks and completions, explained last month by Kubiak: “There’s so many details pre-snap. Snap points. Getting protection set. Communicating to your halfback who’s behind you. Signaling to receivers before the ball snap. Cadence. On the sideline going into each series, going to each position and talking about the plays that are coming and things that he’s looking for. And then all of a sudden, the whole picture changes and making an adjustment on the fly and getting everybody on the same page. … And that’s what the best quarterbacks do, that’s what they are, and that’s something that a young QB like Fernando will keep getting better at with reps.”
Mendoza won’t get the dose of reps he got last month with camp complete, but he can study from the sideline and prepare like the starter. That’s what Cousins did in his rookie season of 2012, but as a fourth-round pick behind fellow rookie Robert Griffin III, the No. 2 pick. Ironically enough, Griffin starred his rookie season.
“You learn so much about how this league operates,” Cousins said after the preseason finale, recalling the lessons he learned on the sideline. “How the season operates. How defenses play you in situational football. How you prepare for the game each week. How you recover from a game. What it takes to really own a game plan over the course of six days. To really get it locked in. … I’ve seen it a lot of different ways and I think it’s all about the long game. Winning the long game and that’s what I think we all want to do.”
Contact Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on X.
