FANTASY FOOTBALL FERNANDO MENDOZA (BEAST OR BUST)

By Muntradamus

BEAST DOME NATION.

I want to start off this article saying, If I was a father and my son turned out to be Fernando Mendoza, I would feel like I hit the jackpot. If I was a father and my daughter turned out to marry Fernando Mendoza, I would feel like I hit the jackpot. Take away Football skills, just an all-around great guy. Great attitude, great demeanor, great person. Great smile as well.

Now that we got the feelings out of it, let us breakdown if Fernandoz Mendoza is really the savior to any Football Franchise.

He is not overly athletic (good TD to win the game against Miami in the Championship, would not happen in the NFL), he is not overly gifted with his arm. He has a solid arm, but not a Patrick Mahomes cannon. 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. The Raiders have too many holes at too many positions. While Brock Bowers is a good weapon, his WRs are not special enough to break open every play. You look at Cam Ward when he had no Calvin Ridley in 2025, if it was not for Cam Ward just making impossible throws and buying time with his legs to make those impossible throws happen, the Titans season would have been way worst than it was at 3-14.

Mendoza can not make magic happen in the NFL with his athletic ability. His arm strength is probably at a Zach Wilson level talent at best. His ability to read an NFL Defense is likely not going to be spectacular as playing at University of Indiana does not prepare you for the NFL. When he was playing at Cal, his stat line looked pathetic. Placing Mendoza on a last place team will stunt his growth. Stenson Bennett would probably just be as good as Mendoza had he been the QB for Indiana this season, and that is the career trajectory that would likely follow Mendoza if it was not for the hype and playing at Indiana.

Mendoza only played against three ranked teams during the regular season. He averaged about 225 yards a game and in two of those three games, he only had 1 TD/1 INT. His 5 TD game against Illinois #9 looks good in the box score, but when has Illinois been good at Football? Old Dominon, Kent State, Indiana State to start the season, please might as well be High School Football teams. Then in the College Football Championship, the team wins the game by running the Football, Mendoza goes 16/27 186 Yards 0 TD against a College Football Defense. Every defense in the NFL is 100x better than Miami Defense.

While his play has been spectacular the talent he is going up against does not translate to NFL. Kirk Cousins is the best case scenario for Mendoza, Stenson Bennett is the worst case scenario. That floor and ceiling does translate to the #1 Pick in the NFL Draft, it does not even translate to a 1st Round Pick.

I wish Mendoza all the best wishes in the world. I see him as truly an ideal human being, but as far as running QB for my Franchise, he is better suited as a good backup than my next icon savior to build a Franchise around.

BUST