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Fernando Mendoza is gearing up for his first season in the NFL with the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Raiders selected Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 draft after he led the Indiana Hoosiers to an undefeated 2025 season and a national championship. While Mendoza added the Heisman Trophy to his list of incredible accomplishments last year, he still has a lot to learn when it comes to being an NFL player.
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Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko talks with quarterbacks Fernando Mendoza and Kirk Cousins during minicamp at Intermountain Health Performance Center in Henderson, Nev., on June 9, 2026. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
Mendoza recently shared some of the advice that Raiders minority owner Tom Brady has lent him in the first two months of being with Las Vegas.
“I think what he said as a quarterback is you need to be the most everything. You need to be the most competitive. You need to be the most leader. You have to have the most leadership,” he said, via the Raiders’ YouTube page.
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Raiders minority owner Tom Brady yells encouragement to players during the first half of a Raiders training camp mock game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Aug. 2, 2025. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
“You need to be the toughest, both mentally and physically. And you’ve got to embody all these things and lead by example before gaining that equity and respect from your teammates in order to lead effectively.”
Mendoza will also have Kirk Cousins to lean on in certain situations, even as the veteran quarterback doesn’t see his relationship as a mentor-mentee situation.
“I think to say I’m mentoring them is a bit of a reach, probably more of a narrative than it is the truth,” Cousins said last week, via The Athletic. “They’re pretty good players and pretty experienced, and I’m learning a lot from them too and asking questions of them.”
Quarterback Fernando Mendoza, selected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft by the Las Vegas Raiders, attends a news conference at the Raiders Headquarters in Henderson, Nev., on April 24, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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It’s unclear whether Mendoza will be the Week 1 starter. Cousins has proved to have some left in the tank to play. He signed a two-year, $12.6 million deal with the Raiders in the offseason.
