Is first-year head coach Klint Kubiak playing it too safe with the Las Vegas Raiders’ quarterback competition between Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza?
Kubiak needs to name Mendoza the starter now, not after three more weeks of “just keep getting better.” Each day that he waits is a day of reps that could be building his franchise quarterback instead of protecting a 38-year-old bridge option in Cousins. Nothing personal against the veteran, but he won’t be here after this season.
Listen to how Kubiak talked about his rookie after the Arizona Cardinals game. Asked what Mendoza needs to show to earn more first-team reps, Kubiak gave a non-answer: “There’s not one thing,” “a million things,” just “keep getting better.” That’s the language of a coach avoiding a decision, a major one at that.
When asked directly about his growth, Kubiak praised the offseason work and said he’ll “continue to get better” with more reps, which is true of literally every young quarterback alive. It tells you nothing about who’s actually playing meaningful snaps once the games count.
Klint Kubiak has the right to be weary…
Here’s the strongest case against me. Kubiak is right to be cautious. He inherited a 3-14 roster, he’s four weeks into his first training camp as a head coach, and he said it himself: this team is “still gelling together.” Mendoza took a sack last week that Kubiak correctly called a team-wide breakdown, not a rookie mistake, and that’s exactly the kind of situational football a young quarterback learns by sitting and watching Cousins operate.
Rushing Mendoza into the lineup before the protection and route detail catch-up could get him hit into next season, and there’s a real history of first overall picks getting stunted by too much too soon. Patience is a coaching virtue, and Kubiak, fresh off a Super Bowl staff in Seattle, has earned some benefit of the doubt on quarterback development.
The Raiders need to build around their franchise guy already…
That argument works fine in a vacuum, but the Raiders aren’t operating in one. This isn’t a team sitting on a playoff window it needs to protect with a steady vet; it’s a rebuild with the No. 1 pick already installed at the position. Every rep Cousins takes with the ones is a rep Mendoza doesn’t get against a defense that’s actually trying to stop him.
Preseason is precisely the environment built for live-fire mistakes without consequence. Kubiak already has his staffing plan “in-house” for Houston and won’t share it. That’s normal gamesmanship. But the offensive philosophy underneath that plan matters more than the play sheet, and right now it reads as a coach hedging on his own top pick rather than committing to him. You don’t develop a franchise quarterback by keeping him one injury away from playing time. You develop him by handing him the keys and living with the growing pains in August, when they’re cheap.
Related: Raiders shake up roster and plug in a new WR
Kubiak has the résumé and pedigree to make this call correctly. What he hasn’t shown yet is the nerve to make it early.
So which is it: does Las Vegas hand Fernando Mendoza the starting job before Week 1, or does Kirk Cousins open the season under center while the Raiders’ most important asset watches from the sideline?
*Top Photo: Ramble Illustration/Getty Images