Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza took the field in silver and black for the first time in his career. It’s just preseason, but for Raiders fans, it matters. The last time the organization had a first overall pick, they selected JaMarcus Russell (we all know how that went).

In Thursday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals, the Raiders started veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins. Cousins led the team on a touchdown drive on his only possession, then came Mendoza. Fans in the stadium felt anxious: questions arose all offseason about whether Mendoza could lead an offense. Could he take snaps from under center? Does he have the arm strength?

This was the franchise’s savior coming onto the field. He had to look good.

On a second-and-15 in the second quarter, Mendoza took the snap. He looked right, didn’t like what he saw. Looked left, nothing there either. He then took off to scramble and took a good hit right into his midsection from the Cardinals safety Kitan Crawford. What he did next no one questioned.

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Mendoza popped right back up, showing the toughness that was one of his best traits in college. Everyone knew he had the frame to take the hits in the NFL, but throughout the rest of the night he answered all the other doubts and concerns everyone had.

Under Center Promise

You’ve heard all offseason about concerns surrounding Mendoza’s ability to take snaps from under center. Well, 40 percent of his snaps on Thursday were exactly that. And he absolutely killed them. He looked confident, poised, and ready for the moment. Something that shouldn’t surprise any of us at this point, but for some reason we are.

An undercenter drop-back isn’t easy for any quarterback, especially one who is 6-foot-5. This clip of Mendoza doing that was my favorite from him throughout the entire night. He starts by looking left and has a simple go-out concept to the field side. Cardinals are all over it. Pay attention to his feet; Mendoza was ready to fire the out, but it wasn’t there. Instead of panicking, he resets his feet, moves his eyes, and fires a ball to his backside dig for a chunk play.

Mendoza’s eyes looking left influenced the field-side backer to open up to the left, creating the opening. That is elite-level quarterback play and something Raider fans should have replaying in their heads until Mendoza takes the field again.

Arm Strength Concerns

For some reason, there were critics throughout this offseason who were concerned about Mendoza’s arm strength. If you turned on the Indiana tape, there were plenty of examples showing he had the arm to survive in the NFL. On Thursday, he showed it off.

During a particular play, we see Mendoza taking another snap undercenter, but there’s a difference this time. It’s a play-action pass, and Mendoza has to turn his back to the defense. Something that isn’t easy at all for young quarterbacks. Nowadays in college, everything is from the shotgun, meaning the quarterback’s eyes are always on the defense. In an offense led by Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak, that isn’t gonna fly.

Mendoza executes this under-center play action to perfection. He has a good play-fake, then instantly whips his eyes back to the boundary-side safety to confirm that it’s a two-high look. His good play-action gets the Cardinals’ backers to come down, then they have to quickly recover to get depth back in their zones. Throughout all this, Raiders rookie wideout Malik Benson is pushing vertically, but it’s gonna stop on a dime 15 yards downfield while running a deep sit route.

The second Benson turns his head, the ball comes out of Mendoza, and he puts it on a line between the collapsing defenders. That’s an NFL-level throw, and you need an NFL-level arm to make it. Mendoza does.

Ball Placement

If you watched Indian’s offense from last season, you knew that Mendoza had impeccable ball placement. Surprise, surprise, it showed up again in his debut with the Raiders.

This was a great play from Kubiak here to get an easy touchdown for Mendoza. Here, Raiders receiver Jack Bech is running a slant route on the left of the screen. The nickel corner is responsible for getting contact on him, then widening out to the No. 1 a tad. The middle linebacker on this play opens up to the right because Raiders tight end Ian Thomas was running a five-yard sit route right in the middle of the field. Naturally, that draws any back to it.

You can see with that sit and the nickel having to widen out, there’s an opening for Bech’s slant route to be thrown. Ball placement is everything here; it looks like an easy throw, but if Mendoza leads him to the inside, Bech is getting lit up.

Instead, he shows off the arm strength again and fires it low and centered. Right into Bech’s lower chest, protecting him and scoring a touchdown for the Raiders.

It Wasn’t All Perfect

Mendoza finished the night 10 of 16 passing for 97 yards and one touchdown, taking one sack. It was a good outing, no doubt, but it’s never all perfect. There were moments when the pocket collapsed on him, pressure got there faster than he expected, and the NFL speed surprised him.

“There was one play where I scrambled to the right, and usually sometimes I’ll be able to get to the edge, maybe scramble for two or three yards,” Mendoza said postgame. “It’s like, ‘Wow, these guys are a little faster than I thought. I’m not going to be able to get around them’ … So I would say definitely faster, and they hit harder.”

It’s all a learning process for the first overall pick, and it seems like he’s taking every rep as a learning experience, which is all Raider fans can ask for.

So, how should Raider fans feel after Mendoza’s first outing?

Encouraged.