{"id":734657,"date":"2026-02-07T01:33:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T01:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734657\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T01:33:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T01:33:33","slug":"mendoza-puts-teammates-first-with-pro-day-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/734657\/","title":{"rendered":"Mendoza puts teammates first with pro day decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Indiana football<\/a> season is over, and it ended in a magical run to a national championship. The Hoosiers shocked everyone and went on to win a national championship in Miami. They did so thanks in large part to the play of Fernando Mendoza<\/a> under center, and to the fact that he won the Heisman Trophy<\/a> and is the favorite to be picked first in the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the most recent episode of \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show,\u201d Mendoza was asked what he was going to do at the NFL Scouting Combine. He made sure to say he was going, but he would not throw because he wanted to help his teammates<\/a> at the Indiana Pro Day. He wanted to help them showcase their talent more than anything else.<\/p>\n

Mendoza said, \u201cAt the combine, you know, you\u2019re throwing to different receivers, it\u2019s a whole different thing. I want to make sure I give my guys the best chance. So I want to throw at pro day with my guys, with my running backs, and be there with the boys. The combine, I don\u2019t think throwing will be a priority just because it\u2019s such a quick turnaround. January 19th? I mean, I felt bad. Luckily, I\u2019m in a better position, so I don\u2019t have to throw in the combine, but a lot of our guys, Kaelon Black, just played in the Senior Bowl. That\u2019s a true NFL season.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is worth noting how much of an overwhelming favorite Mendoza is to be drafted with the top pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Raiders majority owner Mark Davis, minority owner Tom Brady, and general manager John Spytek were all on Indiana’s sideline for the No. 1 Hoosiers’ 27-21 victory over No. 10 Miami\u00a0in the CFP National Championship game.<\/p>\n

Pat McAfee also asked Mendoza about the possibility of joining the Raiders and their expected hiring of Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak as head coach, but Mendoza remained silent.<\/p>\n

Instead, he complimented Kubiak’s development of Sam Darnold and called Brady \u201ca huge football idol of mine.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indiana football season is over, and it ended in a magical run to a national championship. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3619,7,26781,49,48,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-734657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-fernando-mendoza","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-indiana-football","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-nfl-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116026777272434645","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734657","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=734657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}