![\"Kirk](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/kirk-morrison-las-vegas-raiders.jpg\")
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(Photo by Cindy Ord\/Getty Images for SiriusXM)<\/p>\n
The Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> have upgraded their QB situation from last season, when they had Geno Smith and Kenny Pickett start games. Over this offseason, the Silver and Black signed veteran Kirk Cousins and drafted Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick.<\/p>\n Now, the question surrounding the Raiders will be who starts Week 1? Will new head coach Klint Kubiak allow Mendoza to watch and learn behind Cousins, or, if the rookie QB is clearly better than the veteran, will they allow him to start right out the gate?<\/p>\n On April 23, former Raiders star Kirk Morrison shared his thoughts on the QB situation with Mendoza officially in the fold now. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is a different situation coming in with Klint Kubiak,\u201d Morrison said during an appearance on the Raiders\u2019 YouTube channel<\/a>. \u201cThis is going to be a process, and when Fernando is ready, Fernando will go out there and play. But Kirk Cousins is going to be a guy who may start as the No. 1. They always love that they can go out there and compete. That\u2019s what training camp is for. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to be able to grade who is ready and who\u2019s not. All of us will be at training camp. We\u2019ll watch Fernando go through it. They can\u2019t hide us from practice in training camp. We\u2019re going to see if Fernando is ready. We\u2019re going to watch the preseason.\u201d<\/p>\n Fernando Mendoza Will Need to Earn Starting Job<\/p>\n Moreover, Morrison didn\u2019t say that Mendoza should sit on the sidelines. Nonetheless, the former NFL<\/a> player notes that if the former Indiana Hoosiers<\/a> star is going to play right out the gate, he\u2019ll need to earn it. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got to earn his job, just like all the players,\u201d Morrison added. \u201cThey\u2019ve got to earn the decals on their helmets. Fernando\u2019s got to earn this No. 1 overall pick; he has to be the starting quarterback. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt he is going to start at some point for the Raiders, but he has to earn it. And I think you wouldn\u2019t want it any other way. Don\u2019t hand me anything. Let me go out there and earn it. And I think Fernando would say the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Raiders GM Gets Blunt About Fernando Mendoza Selection<\/p>\n Despite many expecting Mendoza to be the pick, the Raiders did their homework on the player. After the announcement, Raiders general manager John Spytek spoke with team columnist Paul Gutierrez about why it made sense to pick Mendoza.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a great process, and we promised ourselves, the ownership group, and the fans that we would do this the right way,\u201d\u00a0Spytek said on April 23 after the Raiders made the pick<\/a>. \u201cAnd we did not begin with the end in mind.\u00a0This\u00a0was not a coronation, but every step of the way, he kept checking boxes. I saw him three times in person \u2014 once in the fall and at the playoff games \u2014 and he played really well in all those games.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a chance to visit with him at the combine, went to Bloomington to see his pro day, spent time with him, went to dinner with him, and then brought him here to Las Vegas and had a great day with him here, too. He just kept checking boxes along the way, and, you know, he made it pretty easy for us to realize that this is the right guy at the right time for the Raiders.\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 Cindy Ord\/Getty Images for SiriusXM) The Las Vegas Raiders have upgraded their QB situation from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[7,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-873424","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\/116459224459269137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873424","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=873424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}