The Las Vegas Raiders may sound confident that they have everything under control, but it might be wise to slow down on the hype train a bit.
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer makes the Raiders’ quarterback search sound thorough and well-planned, with all the travel, meetings, and scouting. But when you look closer, it raises a simple question: are they really weighing options or just going through the motions after already deciding on Fernando Mendoza?
The reporting itself actually points to the answer. When a general manager like John Spytek shows up to multiple games for the same prospect, including the national title, he is not still gathering info. By that point, he already knows what he thinks. He is not evaluating Mendoza anymore; he is convincing himself he is right. That is a big difference, and calling it an open process misses what is really going on.
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This is significant because the Raiders have gone through a number of quarterbacks since Derek Carr’s exit in 2023. They cannot afford to confuse looking busy with actually keeping their options open. At this point, the push toward Mendoza feels built into the organization.
The Raiders appear to be going all in on Mendoza…
Tom Brady was at the national championship with Spytek. Klint Kubiak walked into a job where, by Breer’s own reporting, Mendoza was already seen as the likely pick. Now the offense is being shaped around a player they have not even drafted yet. That order of events stands out.
None of this means Mendoza would be the wrong pick. His growth has been real. He took fewer sacks, made quicker decisions, and now has a championship résumé. Coaches at Cal and Indiana have spoken highly of him, and the Las Vegas Raiders have clearly done work on other quarterbacks, as they should.
But the concern is not about Mendoza’s talent. It is about what happens when a team’s process starts to justify a decision instead of truly testing it. As Breer points out, drafting a quarterback that high usually ties your job to that player. That kind of pressure can push people to look for confirmation instead of asking tough questions. Every meeting and conversation starts to reinforce the same conclusion.
The Raiders have good reasons to pick Mendoza. But doing a lot of work does not automatically make the decision right. Process and outcome are not the same. They may have checked every box, but it feels like they already knew the answer early on.
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