{"id":205907,"date":"2025-07-14T07:53:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T07:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/205907\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T07:53:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T07:53:17","slug":"saints-roll-the-dice-on-indiana-qb-fernando-mendoza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/205907\/","title":{"rendered":"Saints roll the dice on Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Indiana transfer QB Fernando Mendoza could be this year’s breakout star<\/p>\n

NFL teams should not stop throwing darts at the quarterback board until they find one that sticks, which means that the New Orleans Saints<\/a> could go there again next year if they don\u2019t like what they see out of Tyler Shough and Spencer Rattler this season. That stands especially true if they end up with a top pick.<\/p>\n

Bleacher Report\u2019s Brent Sobleski recently put together an interesting 2026 NFL mock draft<\/a> in which he included top high school recruits. That little spin didn\u2019t end up affecting the Saints, though, as they took a college quarterback with the first overall selection. The passer they did end up taking was someone that many fans don\u2019t yet know, but should by the time the draft comes around.<\/p>\n

Indiana Hoosiers<\/a> transfer junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza was the selection this time around. He is expected to be one of the big breakout stars of the next college football season after coming in from the California Golden Bears. He will be 22 by the time the draft rolls around and is a prototypical quarterback prospect that few will struggle to get excited about.<\/p>\n

Mendoza has an NFL frame at 6-foot-5, 225 pounds. He is an incredibly accurate pocket passer who should be able to put up huge numbers this year with the Hoosiers. He completed 68.7% of his passes last year for 3,004 yards and 16 touchdowns to six interceptions. He has every tangible trait that a team could ask for and has shown plenty of potential on the mental side of the game as well.<\/p>\n

It may seem like a rush to move on from Shough after just one year, but it\u2019s important to remember that he wasn\u2019t a first-round pick and doesn\u2019t have the leash that comes with that. If they end up with the first overall selection, it seems likely that there was a lot to be desired on the field under center. Even if it isn\u2019t Mendoza, it would be hard to pass up on a top quarterback if given the chance.<\/p>\n

Other notable passers that could go early include LaNorris Sellers, Drew Allar, Garrett Nussmeier and Arch Manning if he decides to declare. All of those names, plus some surprise options, should be on the board if New Orleans ends up with the first pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana transfer QB Fernando Mendoza could be this year’s breakout star NFL teams should not stop throwing darts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[247,265,374,1443,4221,7,2339,2638,20842,932,2643,248,267,206,896,55,2572,2571,88,6,35196,676,245,537,530,6832,397,6831,4085,9,266],"class_list":{"0":"post-205907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-american-football","10":"tag-bears","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-california-golden-bears","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-golden","15":"tag-hoosiers","16":"tag-hub","17":"tag-indiana","18":"tag-indiana-hoosiers-football","19":"tag-national","20":"tag-national-sports","21":"tag-new","22":"tag-new-orleans","23":"tag-new-orleans-saints","24":"tag-neworleans","25":"tag-neworleanssaints","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-nfl","28":"tag-nfl-hub","29":"tag-orleans","30":"tag-overall","31":"tag-overall-positive","32":"tag-positive","33":"tag-rattler","34":"tag-saints","35":"tag-spencer","36":"tag-spencer-rattler","37":"tag-sports","38":"tag-sports-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114850509828688019","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}