{"id":783845,"date":"2026-03-01T06:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T06:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/783845\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T06:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T06:54:19","slug":"fernando-mendoza-sends-clear-message-to-raiders-tom-brady-at-nfl-combine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/783845\/","title":{"rendered":"Fernando Mendoza Sends Clear Message to Raiders\u2019 Tom Brady at NFL Combine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Most expect the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/sports-nfl-raiders\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> will take Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick in April\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">The move just makes too much sense to not happen with Geno Smith struggling as badly as he did in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Mendoza himself even believes he\u2019s going to be the pick, which makes what he said about seven-time Super Bowl champion and Raiders minority owner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/tom-brady\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tom Brady<\/a> during a press conference at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/topic\/sports-nfl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL<\/a> combine this week all the more intriguing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">Mendoza seemingly believes it\u2019s just a matter of time until he gets some 1-on-1 time with Brady, and he sent a loud and clear message to the future Pro Football Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">\u201cI was able to say a brief hi to Brady on the phone, so that was very special for me,\u201d Mendoza gleefully told reporters. \u201cAnd I look forward to meeting him in person one day and learn from him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img id=\"11600193\" alt=\"Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza\" caption=\"Fernando Mendoza #15 of the Indiana Hoosiers rushes with the ball against the Miami Hurricanes in the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship at Hard Rock Stadium on January 19, 2026 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Patrick Smith\/Getty Images)\" credit=\"\" sourcealt=\"\" sources=\"[]\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"6000\" height=\"4000\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2257240395.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">But that wasn\u2019t all Mendoza said about his future boss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">He also gushed over Brady\u2019s legendary career while raving about the opportunity to be mentored by who many consider the greatest quarterback of all time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">\u201cI mean, who hasn&#8217;t admired Tom Brady, guys?\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/sports\/nfl\/qb-fernando-mendoza-details-fantastic-interview-with-las-vegas-raiders-11594811\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mendoza continued<\/a>. \u201cI mean, more Super Bowl rings than anybody. That opportunity would be fantastic. Tom Brady, I believe, is the greatest quarterback of all time by a wide margin and to be able to have the opportunity to be mentored by him, it would mean so much.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_blockParagraph__I2kr4\">\u201cAnd especially to learn, and I&#8217;m all about learning. So from day one, I got to learn a lot. It&#8217;s going to be a long journey. And to have \u2014 potentially \u2014 have a mentor like that, it&#8217;d be pretty impressive and pretty meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most expect the Las Vegas Raiders will take Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[7,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525,1369],"class_list":{"0":"post-783845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-las-vegas","10":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","11":"tag-lasvegas","12":"tag-lasvegasraiders","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-raiders","15":"tag-tom-brady"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116152610344832424","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783845","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=783845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}