{"id":872080,"date":"2026-04-22T18:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/872080\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T18:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:15:17","slug":"nick-saban-explains-why-fernando-mendoza-can-impact-nfl-team-right-away-compares-to-star-studded-2024-draft-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/872080\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Saban explains why Fernando Mendoza can impact NFL team right away, compares to star-studded 2024 draft class"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fernando Mendoza<\/a> can impact the Las Vegas Raiders, or if another team miraculously drafts him, right away per Nick Saban<\/a>. The former Alabama<\/a> coach compared Mendoza coming out in this year\u2019s draft compared to a star-studded 2024 class that featured Caleb Williams<\/a>, Jayden Daniels<\/a> and Drake Maye<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The former Indiana <\/a>quarterback won the Heisman Trophy and led the Hoosiers to an undefeated season, winning the national championship 2025-26. It\u2019s easy to see why he\u2019s likely the No. 1 overall pick by the Raiders, despite the fact that he might sit behind Kirk Cousins for a season.<\/p>\n

But he won\u2019t be on the bench too long it seems. The way Saban sees it, Mendoza is probably in the mold of the loaded 2024 class that got going right away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m big on making comparisons,\u201d Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show.<\/a> \u201cSo you go through the scenarios where quarterbacks got to sit behind somebody, and I think the biggest failure rate in the NFL is because quarterbacks play before they should. But if you look at the three guys two years ago, Caleb makes an impact in Chicago, (Jayden) makes a big impact in Washington, (Drake) makes a makes a big impact in New England. So those guys played pretty much right away and improved dramatically quickly, but a lot of failures in the NFL play before they\u2019re ready at the position, lose their confidence, and then \u2026 it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n

Fernando Mendoza instant impact QB in NFL?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I do think if you were going to compare Fernando, you would say he fits more into comparing them to those three guys we just talked about than he does to some of these other guys. He would be in the conversation if he was in that draft. And I agree with you on the RPOs and but the guy is sneaky athletic. Doesn\u2019t look athletic, but probably better than he is. He\u2019s accurate throwing the ball, He\u2019s smart, he\u2019s a good decision maker, and he\u2019s accurate. So those things are really, really important, in my opinion. And I think he\u2019s got the right mindset, and he\u2019s improved a lot through his college career. So I\u2019m not saying he won\u2019t have some bumps in the road, I but I also think that he could be pretty damn good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last season, Mendoza threw for 3,535 yards, 41 touchdowns, six interceptions and a 72% completion percentage. In three seasons with Cal and Indiana, Mendoza threw for 8,247 yards, 71 touchdowns, 22 interceptions and a 68.6% completion percentage. <\/p>\n

As a member of the Class of 2022, Mendoza was a three-star recruit out of Miami (Fla.) Columbus, according to the Rivals Industry Ranking<\/a>. He was the No. 267 overall prospect in the state, the No. 127 quarterback in the class and the No. 1,929 overall prospect in the class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Mendoza can impact the Las Vegas Raiders, or if another team miraculously drafts him, right away per…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[26735,7,1744,393,2455,2454,6,11973,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-872080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-fernando-mendoza-22-columbus","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-las-vegas","11":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","12":"tag-lasvegas","13":"tag-lasvegasraiders","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nick-saban-69-monongah","16":"tag-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116449728795683314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872080","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=872080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}