The Athletic\u2019s<\/a> draft analyst Dane Brugler weighed in on what he thinks the Raiders should do with the top selection.<\/p>\nIs Mendoza a lock to be the No. 1 pick?<\/p>\n
How many Las Vegas real estate agents do you think have reached out to Mendoza already? The favorite to be the No. 1 pick played like exactly that in the win over Oregon.<\/p>\n
Mendoza\u2019s superpowers are his pre-snap recognition and accuracy, both of which were on full display. He is extremely proficient understanding where vulnerable one-on-one matchups are going to be, and then he puts the ball in a spot where only his man can make the play. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s an opposite-hash out route, back-shoulder throw or a boundary go pattern, Mendoza\u2019s placement to every level is fantastic.<\/p>\n
We can debate all day where he ranks among other recent top quarterback prospects, including Caleb Williams, Drake Maye and Cam Ward (each of them being a little different type of player). But Mendoza continues to separate himself in the 2026 draft class as the best option for the Raiders.<\/p>\n
This shouldn\u2019t come as much of a surprise after the Peach Bowl. The Heisman Trophy winner has continued to prove himself, and it\u2019s no secret that the Silver and Black have been waiting for an opportunity to get a franchise quarterback since moving on from Derek Carr. So, it sounds like we can start focusing our attention on what the Raiders are going to do with the 36th pick of the draft.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
In Other Raiders\u2019 Links:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Las Vegas Raiders own the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft, and many have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2065],"tags":[1036,127,6446,496,833,3619,7,345,6496,1744,393,2455,2454,1014,6563,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-671827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-caleb-williams","9":"tag-cam-ward","10":"tag-dante-moore","11":"tag-derek-carr","12":"tag-drake-maye","13":"tag-fernando-mendoza","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-green-bay-packers","16":"tag-head-coach","17":"tag-las-vegas","18":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","19":"tag-lasvegas","20":"tag-lasvegasraiders","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-maxx-crosby","23":"tag-nfl","24":"tag-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115883103363884879","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671827","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=671827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}