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(Photo by Ethan Miller\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> are doing everything to potentially give former Indiana Hoosiers<\/a> QB Fernando Mendoza a chance to succeed in the NFL. With the NFL<\/a> Draft approaching on April 23, the expectation is that the Silver and Black will take Mendoza with the first overall pick. <\/p>\n Moreover, if Mendoza isn\u2019t ready to start, the Raiders did sign Kirk Cousins to be that veteran to play and mentor Mendoza until he\u2019s ready to go. Las Vegas likely doesn\u2019t want to put out a young QB if they aren\u2019t ready and have a setback in his development. <\/p>\n On the April 10 edition of \u201cThe Richard Sherman Podcast,\u201d<\/a> former NFL player Richard Sherman shared his thoughts on the Silver and Black, noting that the franchise is making a responsible decision. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s great as a mentor to a young quarterback if that\u2019s the role he\u2019s comfortable with, and it sounds like, based on how he\u2019s speaking, he is,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cThey brought him in for that, and he\u2019s at a point in his career where he\u2019s getting his money and has his family in a good place. He seems happy to help the next guy succeed and do what he needs to do. <\/p>\n \u201cDoes he still have that competitiveness and desire to play? I\u2019m sure he does, but they\u2019re paying him enough to say, \u2018Hey, whether you mentor or you play, you\u2019re getting your money. Be good.\u2019 He\u2019s in a great place to do that, and the Raiders are in position to handle it the right way. This is what should have happened with J.J. McCarthy. It\u2019s what happened with Jordan Love. It\u2019s how teams give quarterbacks the best possible chance to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n Raiders\u2019 Kirk Cousins Talks Fernando Mendoza<\/p>\n During an appearance on \u201cGood Morning Football,\u201c Cousins spoke about the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and kind of let the cat out of the bag that he and Mendoza will be teammates.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t want to start unless I\u2019m the best option,\u201c\u00a0Cousins said on the April 8 edition of \u201cGood Morning Football.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u201cI told Klint the best players should play. As long as that\u2019s the case, I have no qualms with however it plays out. I do think Fernando is going to be a great addition to our team.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s going to have a great future in the league. I have no problem being a voice in the room to help him to the degree that I can. He\u2019s going to have great support all around him from the coaching staff. Being able to watch a veteran quarterback go through his habits, routines, and process can be a great asset for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Fernando Mendoza Gets Compelling QB Comparison<\/p>\n Moreover, ESPN NFL Draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. gave an NFL quarterback comparison for Mendoza, and if he is accurate, it\u00a0would allow Las Vegas to have a guy who can help them challenge for Super Bowls in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what you look at with Fernando is a cross between Peyton Manning and Matt Ryan, \u201c\u00a0Kiper said during an April 7 appearance on ESPN Radio<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m not a comp guy, because we always comp them to the great guys, but yeah, I see a little Peyton in him. I see a little Matt Ryan in him.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd keep in mind, people think he\u2019s a one-year wonder. He\u2019s not. At Cal, he was a really good quarterback behind a bad offensive line. That\u2019s why he was sacked 41 times. He knew he had to get the ball out quicker, and he improved on that number dramatically at Indiana when he got a little bit more help.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEduardo Razo<\/a> Eduardo Razo is a sports writer for Heavy.com, covering the NFL, MLB, and college football. He has previously covered the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, and has freelanced for PSG Talk, covering Paris Saint-Germain. He also worked as an editor at Athlon Sports, focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Raiders\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty (Photo by Ethan Miller\/Getty Images) The Las Vegas Raiders are doing everything to potentially give former Indiana…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2065],"tags":[7,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-863370","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"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116382071045258155","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863370","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=863370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}