{"id":973100,"date":"2026-08-14T16:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/973100\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T16:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:48:15","slug":"mendoza-airs-it-out-in-first-nfl-preseason-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/973100\/","title":{"rendered":"Mendoza Airs It Out In First NFL Preseason Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years ago, Fernando Mendoza<\/a> quarterbacked California in blue and gold. Last season, Mendoza made history at Indiana in crimson and cream.<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s a Las Vegas Raider, Mendoza wears silver and black. Regardless of the color scheme, the 2025 Heisman winner is a playmaker and on Thursday, the rookie saw his first live NFL action against Arizona in a preseason opener.<\/p>\n

And of course, he threw a touchdown pass.<\/p>\n

Mendoza isn\u2019t slated to start right away for the Raiders. That job belongs to veteran and first-year Vegas QB Kirk Cousins. Mendoza\u2019s first training camp has been rocky, par for the course for all NFL rookies, particularly those under center.<\/p>\n

But Mendoza has earned praise from first-year Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak for his progress. On Thursday, playing with Las Vegas\u2019 second team, Mendoza completed 10-of-16 passes for 97 yards over about two quarters of action, including a 6-yard touchdown pass that tied the game at 14. He also rushed twice for six yards.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Mendoza\u2019s scoring arial also ended a bit of a Heisman-related statistical drought. No NFL rookie drafted first overall had thrown a TD pass in his exhibition opener since fellow Heisman winner and then-Cleveland Brown Baker Mayfield<\/a> did so in 2018. So there\u2019s that.<\/p>\n

Kubiak praised Mendoza after the game, telling media: \u201cI thought he led a good scoring drive as far as getting in and out of the huddle and commanding the group and getting the play calls down. I saw the same guy that we\u2019ve seen in practice. I see an ascending player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendoza also completed 3-of-4 passes on third down, two going for first downs. He almost threw a second TD pass in the fourth quarter, just missing on a connection.<\/p>\n

The game also served as a reunion for two 2025 Heisman finalists. Third-place Heisman finisher Jeremiyah Love, selected two spots behind Mendoza by Arizona in the 2026 NFL Draft, rushed for 58 yards on 11 carries and also caught three passes.<\/p>\n

Mendoza and the Raiders have two remaining exhibition games, playing at Houston on Aug. 20 while hosting San Francisco on Aug. 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two years ago, Fernando Mendoza quarterbacked California in blue and gold. Last season, Mendoza made history at Indiana…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":973101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[3619,7,10341,7805,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":["post-973100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-las-vegas-raiders","tag-fernando-mendoza","tag-football","tag-heisman-trophy","tag-jeremiyah-love","tag-las-vegas","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-lasvegas","tag-lasvegasraiders","tag-nfl","tag-raiders"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117094888444284005","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973100","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=973100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/973101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}