Houston Texans<\/a> during Week 2 of the preseason, followed by a third and final contest against the San Francisco 49ers at home. Rookie quarterback Fernando Mendoza will undoubtedly use the preseason to his advantage this August, as the former Indiana star should be able to get a solid feel for things across three weeks of preseason action prior to kickoff in September.<\/p>\nMendoza is expected to enter the 2026 campaign as the Raiders\u2019 starting quarterback despite being a rookie. The former first overall pick could certainly have his hands full during Week 2 of the preseason in Houston, as the Texans\u2019 defense would prove to be the ultimate test for the rookie should they decide to keep their starters in throughout the first half.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"May]()
<\/p>\n
Week 3\u2019s matchup against the 49ers will be extremely important as well, as the Raiders\u2019 young defensive core could be tested early and often against San Francisco. Mendoza and the rest of the Raiders\u2019 rising stars will be at the center of attention throughout all three weeks of the preseason in August, and the team as a whole will look to start the 2026 campaign with a string of wins later this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 22, 2026, 3:42 p.m. PT The Las Vegas Raiders officially released their preseason schedule. They will kick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[95878,7,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525,119875,15978,97498,95882,95890,95946,97216,95953,95885,95896,95888,95895,95906,95883,95881],"class_list":["post-898659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-las-vegas-raiders","tag-accessfree","tag-football","tag-las-vegas","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-lasvegas","tag-lasvegasraiders","tag-nfl","tag-raiders","tag-sourceraiders-wire","tag-sstssportsnflraiders","tag-sstsnraiders","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagarizona-cardinals","tag-tagcalifornia-gold-rush","tag-tagcgr-sports","tag-taghouston-texans","tag-taglas-vegas-raiders","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116621366285683595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898659","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=898659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"May](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/90162791007-usatsi-28863534-168403276-lowres.jpg\")
<\/p>\n