FANTASY FOOTBALL BEAST OR BUST FERNANDO MENDOZA VOL II.
FANTASY FOOTBALL BEAST OR BUST
FERNANDO MENDOZA VOL II.
By Muntradamus
BEAST DOME NATION.
In the article I write..
“At the end of the day, if Mendoza ends up with better numbers than Kirk Cousins NFL career, that would be a big victory. With that being said, he is not going to do well with the Las Vegas Raiders if they take him #1…”
Funny enough the Raiders end up bringing Kirk Cousins into Vegas to mentor Mendoza. Without reading anything, the Raiders would be wise to use Kirk Cousins in 2026 as their starting QB instead of Mendoza. The NFL comes at you FAST, a College Football star at the QB position means nothing, it is a completely different game. The pass rush is 10x faster, the coverage is 10x tighter. Either you are a great QB, or you are the next meme QB.
Where the Raiders really messed up this offseason, was spending $35 Mil/3 Years on Jalen Nailor. It is one thing if Jalen Nailor was an impact player, but Jalen is hardly that. The reason why Nailor had any success with the Vikings, which btw was very little success, was because Justin Jefferson sucked up double coverage on one side, and Addison deserved a lot of eyes on the other side. That left Nailor running routes against linebackers over the middle of the field and making some plays. Nailor is paid as a Top 30 WR in the NFL this season, which is ridiculous considering his 444 Yards on 29 Receptions was a career high last season. To make this stat even more annoying, Jerry Rice over 20 Years got $44.5 Mil, I know it is a different time, but still these two names should never share a sentence.
With that being said, Mendoza does not have the weapons to be a successful QB with the Raiders. Tre Tucker is not a #1 WR, Brock Bowers is good sure, but defenses really lose nothing by selling out on stopping the big TE. Bech and Thornton Jr. have some skill, but all in all, besides Brock Bowers, none of these players are starting for a real contending offense.
The addition of Kubiak could help brighten the future of Mendoza, and having Tom Brady in his ear will definitely help a lot more than it hurts. However I promise if the Raiders do not bring in another star WR for Mendoza, his rookie card value will drop straight into the trash as the roster stands right now and he will be on every Waiver Wire in 2026.
BUST
I am not writing off the career of Mendoza. He does have some intangibles such as the size, leadership, and arm talent, but this current roster is not built to win games by scoring a lot of points. When that is the case the QB is not in a position to have a big season.