What the Raiders are saying about top pick Fernando Mendoza at OTAs

Las Vegas Raiders coach Klint Kubiak has seen what he expected from top draft pick Fernando Mendoza since the rookie arrived in the building to start learning the offense.

That’s a good thing.

“(He has been) as advertised,” Kubiak said. “He has not disappointed. He’s working his tail off. It’s very important to him. Asks a lot of great questions when he gets on the field. He’s no BS. He’s all ball.”

Kubiak has been particularly pleased with the progression he has seen from Mendoza from rookie camp through the first week of organized team activities over the past month.

“I think anything that you put in front of him, he’s going to attack it,” Kubiak said. “Anything that’s new, he spends extra time on it. You can tell he fixes things from one day to the next. Very coachable, and that could be said for all those quarterbacks in the room.”

The top two on the quarterback depth chart are Mendoza and veteran Kirk Cousins, who has made a similar impression on Kubiak and in the locker room.

“We’re all getting to know each other right now, and the process has been really great,” left tackle Kolton Miller said. “Kirk has been a real vocal guy. He wants to get the most of it out of everybody. And Fernando has been like a sponge. Overall, the team is looking really good.

“He’s always wired, taking notes, and then just seeing him on the field, it’s new to him, but he’s handling it great.”

It’s a similar assessment to the one offered by running back Ashton Jeanty, who said both quarterbacks have brought great energy to the practice field and impacted the team in their own ways.

“Obviously, Kirk playing in the league awhile, just that experience and leadership,” Jeanty said. “Fernando as well, obviously being a rookie, he did some special things in college and he’s going to continue to learn and help lead as well.”

The quarterbacks, who share similar personality traits despite a 15-year age gap, have quickly bonded.

That was clear from the viral schedule release video that saw Mendoza and Cousins portray legendary characters Brennan Huff and Dale Doback, made famous by Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in the 2008 film “Step Brothers.”

While the performance drew near universal praise, Kubiak didn’t crack.

“I’d love for him to focus on football more,” the coach quipped.

Mendoza enjoyed the process, which didn’t take much time away from his main duties.

“We actually didn’t really prepare,” he told Sports Illustrated during the NFL Rookie Premier event last week. “However, Kirk for sure outshined me and helped me because he’s a little bit of a marketing vet, especially with the Netflix documentary that he did. So he was great. He took a little bit of a vet role as well in that production. It was a fun and funny thing we wanted to do for the fans. I was really glad that it came out well.”

It was the attending of that event that Mendoza expressed frustration about in terms of time away from preparation in the team facility, even though he found the program worthwhile and was able to make the most out of being there.

“I’m going to be completely honest with you, I’d rather be practicing right now, and I was really upset about actually having to miss practice for this,” he said. “Still, it’s been a great moment to where it was mandatory to be here. I’m not going to feel sorry for myself and feel wishy-washy. I’m going to have a smile on my face and make the most of that present moment. Live and learn all the NFL pay benefits, make all the connections with different mentors here, let me make sure I can maximize my time to be able to create a positive impact and learn about my situation and surroundings. Those are all the things I really benefited from being here.”

Then it was back to work where the Raiders were on the field for OTAs last week.

The bond between Mendoza and Cousins that was evident on screen also was seen on the practice field. It could be a positive sign as they go through the rigors of learning an offense and prepare for the season.

Kubiak, who included Aidan O’Connell in his praise, said that relationship has been helped by the environment created by offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan.

Still, a competition will determine the starting quarterback.

While Kubiak and general manager John Spytek have been clear they would like to see Mendoza given an opportunity to serve as an understudy to Cousins, they also consistently have insisted decisions on playing time will be based on merit.

“It’s going to reveal itself, especially in training camp,” Kubiak said of who will be his starting quarterback. “But it’s going to reveal itself here in these next however many (practices) we have? Eight OTAs, these minicamp practices. But yeah, we definitely will let the players figure that out for us with their tape.”

The assignment for Mendoza to earn that job is fairly simple.

Learn the offense, embrace the leadership aspect of playing quarterback at the NFL level and master the communication process.

As far as how his performance will be measured on the practice field, Kubiak was succinct.

“Completions,” he said. “Getting the ball to play makers and letting them work on time, that’s the progress we want to see.”