Before it was learned that the Las Vegas Raiders agreed to sign former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins, a report revealed that people within the Raiders believe that Indiana Hoosiers star and presumed No. 1 overall draft pick Fernando Mendoza “consistently got better” during his final college season.
Specifically, the Raiders allegedly are impressed by the fact that Mendoza took just 25 sacks this past campaign after he was sacked 41 times during his last season with Cal. For an article published hours before the Cousins-related Raiders news went public, ESPN’s Bill Connelly explained why Las Vegas may want to protect Mendoza from himself later this year.
Fernando Mendoza took a lot of hits despite achieving success
“The national average for the ratio of sacks to pressures was 17.2% in 2024-25 — meaning, basically one in six pressures turned into sacks on average — but Mendoza far exceeded that (in a bad way) both years,” Connelly wrote. “His ratio was 25.3% as he took 41 sacks at Cal in 2024, and though he was protected far better at Indiana in 2025 (his pressure rate fell from 38.4% to 28.3%), he still took 25 sacks with a 22.5% sacks-to-pressures ratio.”
Back in 2024, Raiders minority owner and living legend Tom Brady generated headlines when he said he thought “it’s just a tragedy that we’re forcing these [rookie quarterbacks] to play early.” More recently, first-year Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak hinted that he’d prefer for Mendoza to spend part of his first pro season serving as a backup for “a mature adult” such as Cousins.
“In his final seven games of 2025, he was sacked 18 times (a massive 10.4% sack rate) with a 30.5% sacks-to-pressures ratio,” Connelly added about Mendoza. “This is important because while your college stats don’t always follow you to the NFL — we can generally say that you won’t top your college rate stats, but we can’t say how close you will get to them — that sacks-to-pressures ratio is pretty sticky. It follows you more than most stats do.”
Why Kirk Cousins could be a perfect mentor for Fernando Mendoza
For a different ESPN piece, analyst Ben Solak shared why the 37-year-old Cousins could be an ideal mentor for Mendoza through part or all of the 2026 season.
“He has always been a sharp football mind and has a similar play style to Mendoza,” Solak said about Cousins. “These two quarterbacks also have similar personalities, and Cousins can help Mendoza learn how to lead an NFL locker room without putting on a false persona.”
Of course, conversations about Cousins’ role with the Raiders could drastically change if it becomes clear by the end of August that Mendoza is the best overall quarterback on Las Vegas’ roster. For now, it appears that Mendoza won’t have to worry about avoiding crunching hits as he spends Sundays watching the action from the sidelines.