With Week 1 getting closer by the day, Las Vegas Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak had plenty to say Friday. The problem? He still left plenty unanswered.
Take the quarterback situation. Asked whether Aidan O’Connell would leapfrog Fernando Mendoza if Kirk Cousins gets hurt, Kubiak offered this: “We have three guys that are ready to play.” That’s not an answer. That’s a dodge dressed up as a compliment. The Raiders are a couple weeks from kickoff, and their QB2 remains a mystery, one Kubiak seems perfectly content to preserve.
Fernando Mendoza’s preseason struggles…
The Mendoza interception question got a more interesting response. Kubiak called the throw “excellent,” adding that Mendoza “ripped it just like we asked him to on time.” The ball was high, and Jalen Nailor didn’t come down with it. It’s a small window into how this staff evaluates its quarterbacks: process over outcome. The question of whether that philosophy will hold up once the regular season begins is a different matter entirely.
Then there’s Ashton Jeanty, whose vague “on the mend” status has become a running theme of camp. Kubiak’s phrasing, “we’re counting on him,” sounds less like confidence and more like hope stapled to a timeline. Add in his unwillingness to commit to any sort of workload split between Mike Washington Jr. and the other running backs, and the picture of the Raiders’ backfield coming into Week 1 is still largely blank.
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To his credit, Kubiak didn’t dodge the harder, human questions. Asked about cutting players he’s coached since April, he didn’t hide behind cliché. “It’s awful,” he said, before pivoting to the kind of speech that sounds rehearsed until you remember he’s lived it: guys who get cut, claimed, and carve out 12-year careers anyway. It was the most honest moment of the day, if not the most newsworthy.
This has been an interesting Raiders preseason…
The throughline here isn’t incompetence but rather caution. Kubiak is managing a roster with real questions at quarterback, running back, and a defense he’s clearly proud of but hasn’t fully tested in real fourth-quarter football. His answers weren’t evasive out of weakness. They were evasive because the decisions genuinely haven’t been made.
That’s either reassuring or alarming, depending on how much patience Raiders fans have left. Given the last several seasons, patience might be in shorter supply than a starting quarterback.
*Top Photo: Ramble Illustration/Getty Images