Back in Atlanta, Kirk Cousins felt misled. The Falcons had drafted Michael Penix Jr. in 2024 despite Cousins having a long-term deal with the franchise. His starter job was gone. But when the veteran quarterback walked into Las Vegas, he knew the Raiders would pick Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick in 2026. His position as a starter wasn’t guaranteed, and that made it easier to understand what his role might look like once the season started.

That understanding is exactly why Cousins has approached the situation with acceptance instead of frustration. Rather than resisting the competition, the veteran quarterback openly acknowledged the reality in early April, saying he wanted head coach Klint Kubiak to simply play whoever gives the team the best chance to win. And now, in the latest update, the franchise owner, Mark Davis, has provided more clarity.

“The offseason has been very strong for us; we continually win the offseason. It’s time to now make it translate to the regular season,” he said as per Raiders Lead. “With Fernando Mendoza coming in as potentially the starting QB, it’s just so exciting.

“We have got the pieces in place. It’s going to take a while to get all the players and everything, but I believe that we are in the forefront of getting this thing going again.”

Davis also talked about the franchise’s complete rebuild and the optimism that comes with it. That new vibe runs through Fernando Mendoza, the Raiders’ 2026 first-overall Heisman-winning draft pick out of Indiana. And for Cousins, this is all too familiar. He got benched in favor of Michael Penix Jr. in 2024 and spent the offseason as the designated backup for the Falcons. He still managed to start from Week 12 onwards after Penix tore his ACL in Week 11.

But for the Raiders, a team that is focused on rebuilding, a 37-year-old veteran on short-term guarantees might not be on their long-term plans. On paper, Cousins has a five-year, $172 million deal. But in reality, only $20 million of that is guaranteed for this year. The Falcons pay $8.7 million of it, the Raiders give him the veteran minimum of $1.3 million, and the remaining $10 million he gets on the third day of the 2027 league year.

Las Vegas can pick up a two-year option on his contract worth $80 million for 2027-2028, but right now, his deal is a one-year stopgap at best. Russell Wilson went through a similar situation with the New York Giants last season. He was projected to be the team’s starter while rookie Jaxson Dart developed for a year. But after struggling through three weeks, Wilson had to embrace the backup role behind Dart.

Dart, for his part, played really well. He logged 2,272 passing yards and 15 touchdowns against just five picks. Mendoza, coming off a 16-0 collegiate campaign, has similar expectations on his shoulders. But these transitions rarely wait for the veterans to be comfortable.

The Raiders’ history also makes the urgency behind starting Mendoza understandable. Since Derek Carr’s departure in 2022, the franchise has burned through Jarrett Stidham, Aidan O’Connell, Jimmy Garoppolo, Brian Hoyer, Desmond Ridder, Geno Smith, and Kenny Pickett. That’s several quarterbacks after Carr in the last four seasons, none of them working out.

Before Carr, JaMarcus Russell–the franchise’s previous first overall pick at quarterback–went 7-18 as a starter and never played in the NFL again after 2009. Of all the quarterbacks the Raiders have drafted since 1959, only two have winning records as prolonged starters with the franchise.

That’s the weight Fernando Mendoza is stepping up to shoulder. And based on what the owner just said publicly, the clock on Cousins may already be running. However, for Mendoza, it is going to be quite a climb.

Fernando Mendoza’s blueprint laid out

The scouting report on Mendoza isn’t all clean, despite the first-round pedigree. An anonymous coach had noted earlier this month that Mendoza’s “receivers made plays to make him look better than he is.” That wasn’t a knock on his arm, but it was a question of whether the talent around him in college inflated what the NFL is actually getting under pressure, against veteran athletes, with no margin for error.

Mendoza knows it, and so do the Raiders. That’s why they’re already working on a specific part of his game that didn’t exist in college, playing more snaps under center, to push his development before he takes a regular-season snap.

Meanwhile, three Raiders Heisman legends (Marcus Allen, Tim Brown, and Charles Woodson) have already weighed in. Their message to Mendoza: “Don’t try to be Tom Brady, earn the trust of the locker room, and be a sponge.”

There’s also a financial dimension to how much is riding on Mendoza. Renowned businessman Mark Cuban revealed last week that he’d bankrolled the NIL deal that brought Mendoza to Indiana. That kind of early investment rarely comes without expectations that follow a player into the pros. But there’s also a counterargument for rushing Mendoza onto the field.

JaMarcus Russell was handed the job without being ready for it, and he never recovered from that. Given the damage that precedent left on this franchise, sitting Mendoza behind Cousins for half a season while giving him reps might be the most responsible thing they can do.

The OTAs and training camp will sort the depth chart out. But with Mark Davis already calling Fernando Mendoza “exciting” and talking long-term growth in the same breath, Kick Cousins knows exactly what his role in this story is. Not the main character, once again.