{"id":766182,"date":"2026-02-21T05:59:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T05:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/766182\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T05:59:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T05:59:22","slug":"daniel-jeremiah-explains-why-he-gave-fernando-mendoza-same-nfl-draft-grade-as-cam-ward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/766182\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Jeremiah explains why he gave Fernando Mendoza same NFL Draft grade as Cam Ward"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the pre-draft process rolls along, the wide sense is Fernando Mendoza<\/a> will go to the Las Vegas Raiders as the No. 1 overall pick. The former Indiana<\/a> star is the clear top quarterback prospect in the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a>, according to multiple draft analysts, and NFL Network\u2019s Daniel Jeremiah said Mendoza\u2019s grade is up there with Cam Ward<\/a> a year ago.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah told reporters Thursday he gave Mendoza the same draft grade as he gave Ward in 2025. The Tennessee Titans selected Ward with the top pick out of Miami<\/a>, where he ranked third in the nation in total offense after transferring from Washington State<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, Mendoza and Ward bring two drastically different skillsets to the table. But when it comes down to the evaluation as draft prospects, Jeremiah said they\u2019re similar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave him the same grade that I gave Cam Ward,\u201d Jeremiah said on a conference call. \u201cYou could not be any more, kind of, polar opposites as players where Cam Ward, it was kind of the magic, the off-schedule magic that he had, to go along with just kind of a loose, fluid motion. Everything he did was just so smooth. He\u2019d kind of fade away and throw the ball wherever he wanted. Whereas Mendoza, a little more robotic in his movement than Cam, but still has a strong arm. I think he does a really, really good job of protecting the football.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of them excel in the RPO game. I think you\u2019d want to have an element of that in your offense, if you\u2019re [Klint] Kubiak, just because he\u2019s so comfortable and such a great decision-maker there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel Jeremiah on Fernando Mendoza\u2019s \u2018best attribute\u2019<\/p>\n

Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy this past season while leading Indiana to its first-ever national championship. He completed 72% of his passes for 3,535 yards and 41 touchdowns, to just six interceptions. In fact, heading into the national championship, he had more touchdowns than incomplete passes.<\/p>\n

But what stood out most to Daniel Jeremiah was Mendoza\u2019s toughness, which was on full display in the national championship. That level of poise is a big reason why he grades out so well as the top quarterback prospect on the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best attribute that he has, to be honest with you, I\u2019d say is his toughness,\u201d Jeremiah said. \u201cLike, I think, if you go through and look at all these great quarterbacks over the years, I\u2019ve always harped on poise being a big part of it. The Hall of Famers, I did a study a long time ago, and you see all different sizes. You\u2019ll see different arm strength, you\u2019ll see different athleticism. But they all had a poise to them, and that also has to do with the toughness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get drilled early in the game \u2013 as he did a couple times \u2013 and you don\u2019t see any rattle to him at all, he locks back in. There\u2019s a mental and a physical toughness to him that I think is going to serve him well. And I would imagine with Tom Brady<\/a> in the building, as someone who had a reputation for both the mental and physical toughness, that those traits will be appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the pre-draft process rolls along, the wide sense is Fernando Mendoza will go to the Las Vegas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13075,26735,7,6,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-766182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-cam-ward-20-columbia","9":"tag-fernando-mendoza-22-columbus","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-nfl-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116107094651721426","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766182","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=766182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}