Remember when the Las Vegas Raiders were 3-0? Life came at them fast, as, in the blink of an eye, the Raiders have now lost four games in a row and are 3-4 on the year. A team that some might have argued could vie for a playoff berth is now squarely third in the division and far down the list of potential threats in the AFC.
The Raiders' season got off to a hot start with them beating the Dolphins, Chargers, and Saints, but fortunately, the Kansas City Chiefs handed Vegas its first loss. From there, it's been three more losses, with the Raiders falling to the Patriots in blowout fashion, losing to the Bills, and then recently dropping to the Rams by double digits.
Kirk Cousins helped the Raiders get off to a hot start, keeping rookie No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza on the bench in the meantime. But how much longer can that go on?
Kirk Cousins' struggles are making the Raiders' decision harder
Cousins did not look sharp at all in the first three quarters of the Raiders' eventual loss to the Rams. He completed 17 of 30 passes for 130 yards, and the Raiders were down by double digits and looking helpless on offense. While Cousins revved it up in the fourth quarter, some of those could be considered garbage-time numbers. It wasn't enough to bring Vegas back into the game, either.
Brad Berreman of Just Blog Baby, FanSided's Raiders site, does a weekly edition called the Mendoza Meter, which gives us, on a scale of 1 to 10, how likely it is that we'll be seeing the rookie signal-caller the coming week. Berreman gave the scale a nine this week, and it's not hard to see why. Cousins is who he is, and he's hit his ceiling for the season.
Raiders turning to Fernando Mendoza is inevitable
Fortunately for Cousins, he still has a chance to keep his starting job for another week, as head coach Klint Kubiak has said that he'll remain the starter. "Kirk Cousins is our quarterback. There is no controversy there."
Usually, when you have questions arising about benching the starting quarterback, a controversy has already arrived. The Raiders had to know this was going to come, and, truthfully, they're lucky that they were able to fight it off for this long. The 3-0 start and video game-like numbers that Cousins put up in the first three games were great, but he's come back down to earth now.
Week 8 against the Jets seemed like a decent time to slot Mendoza in as the starter, given the opposition, but Kubiak obviously still thinks Cousins is doing a decent enough job. Perhaps he also doesn't think Mendoza is ready for a starting role just yet.
Mendoza made his debut already this year, relieving Cousins during the Raiders' blowout loss to New England in Week 5. He completed 6 of 8 passes for 48 yards.
Chiefs could face a very different Raiders quarterback in Week 18
The Chiefs don't play the Raiders again until the final week of the 2026 season, and it's very likely that Mendoza is the one taking the snaps for Vegas by that point. The question becomes how long he'll have been in that role before that game.
Las Vegas is hoping that Fernando Mendoza is its franchise quarterback, and his time to prove it will be coming sooner rather than later.
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