Graney: Fernando Mendoza is where he should be in the moment

This is it. This is how it’s supposed to be. How it should be.

Fernando Mendoza is chasing.

Chasing improvement. Chasing knowledge of a playbook. Chasing development.

Chasing a starting job.

When the latter might occur is anyone’s guess, but it likely won’t be when the Raiders open their season against Miami on Sept. 13. That spot will almost assuredly fall to veteran Kirk Cousins.

But that doesn’t mean Mendoza’s learning curve isn’t being accelerated throughout training camp, that coaches aren’t throwing different things at the rookie quarterback to see how he will respond. And he has to this point. It’s early. Real early.

But you can’t say Mendoza doesn’t have a firm and mature grip on the concepts for someone so young and inexperienced to the NFL level. He knows where he stands at this point.

And it’s no longer at Indiana.

Smaller margins

“There is the on-field and there’s the off-field,” Mendoza said this week. “The on-field, the margins are smaller and the standards are higher. Although (Indiana coach Curt Cignetti) did hold a very high standard, especially in the quarterback room, at Indiana. But the margins are smaller in the NFL. I would say, across the league, is a little bit more of an even dynamic and equilibrium rather than college, where you kind of get some disparities sometimes.

“I’m able to learn as a rookie and all the rookies are able to learn from the veteran players. All those guys who have all that fantastic wisdom and advice, and have had the highs of their career, and although very little, lows in their career as well. Being able to learn from that and be able to help us accelerate our development.”

Here’s the good part: The Raiders know Mendoza will make mistakes and they embrace the concept. You want to see how guys handle adversity. How they react to mental errors. Nobody is perfect and that’s not what you want, not in training camp. The NFL doesn’t work that way. Nobody has a spotless resume when it comes to executing.

Raiders coach Klint Kubiak has made one thing clear: The best man will play. The ones who have shown they deserve such a nod. Guys will need to earn their spots as a starter.

“Anytime that a guy knows that his spot’s in jeopardy, no one’s comfortable,” Kubiak said, “So, that’s great for coaches, for players to not be comfortable. The NFL does a really good job making sure that’s a reality. When our team can be competitive at all positions, and our roster, our young roster, can push the veterans, we’re going to keep getting better.”

It’s the best way for a team coming off a three-win season. You can’t play favorites when trying to climb the ladder in an ultra-tough AFC West. Capable talent must trump all other decisions. The Raiders have too far to go for anything less.

So it goes that a veteran like Cousins, who enters with a strong grasp of Kubiak’s offense, has the immediate upper-hand. As the coach said before camp began, Cousins is the guy. And it makes more than enough sense.

It leaves Mendoza to prove how quickly he can move forward, how fast his growth will materialize.

“When it was in rookie minicamp and OTAs, it happened very quickly,” Mendoza said. “However, now in training camp, I truly feel like a member of the team rather than a new rookie on the scene. I feel like a lot of rookies feel that way too. Having the summer to digest the playbook, extra meeting time, and every day it’s more and more reps that I get. I feel like the entire team improves every single rep we get. So, the more experience we put out there on the field, the more beneficial for everybody.”

In this moment

He is learning, developing, trying to quickly come into his own at this level. Far to go, for sure.

But his outlook couldn’t be better. His willingness to ask questions in the room. His overall wanting to get better.

This is it.This is how it’s supposed to be. How it should be.

Fernando Mendoza is chasing.

He’s exactly where he’s supposed to be in this moment.