Tom Brady knows better than most that not all rookie quarterbacks enter the NFL under the same circumstances. Selected 199th overall by the New England Patriots in 2000, Brady built his career with relatively modest expectations compared to top draft picks. Now, as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, he finds himself on the other side of that equation after the franchise selected quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. And when asked about it, Brady compared Mendoza’s situation to the one Peyton Manning faced at the start of his NFL career.

“(There’s) a lot of pressure and a lot of mentoring, and there was another guy who’s one of my favorite quarterbacks to ever play: Peyton Manning,” Brady said. “Peyton was my age, a little older than me. He was the first overall pick, and he had a tremendous amount of expectations. And he was like the first prospect out of high school to go to college. So, his dad was a great player in the pros. So, even through high school, everyone knew about Peyton Manning.

“…He’s the number one overall pick. Gets drafted by the Indianapolis Colts. Tremendous expectations around him. And what I appreciate and love about Peyton is that he always outperformed his expectations. It was a tremendous talent that he had to be able to do that. He was very much like me: process-oriented, disciplined, driven, accountable, and I’d say that his path is harder than the path I took. My path was challenging in different ways. Peyton, if he failed, everyone saw it right away, and he had to take that on, and he superseded those expectations because of his will and determination, and I love that about him. So, Fernando, whom we chose, he’s got the same expectation. Now, fortunately, he has me there to help mentor him.”

Even becoming an NFL quarterback, Manning was already a high-profile player as a member of the Manning Football Dynasty. The son of Archie Manning, he arrived with enormous expectations at Tennessee and delivered, as he went 39-6 before heading to the NFL. Still, a strong collegiate career didn’t initially guarantee his first overall selection.

Ahead of the 1998 NFL draft, Manning and Ryan Leaf were two of the highly scouted quarterbacks. “Manning-Leaf was really split when you talked to people,” Tony Dungy said at that time. While 14 out of 20 NFL coaches and executives preferred Leaf’s stronger arm and potential, others favored Manning as a safer pick.

Eventually, the Indianapolis Colts drafted Manning with the first overall pick. However, he was asked to lead an inconsistent team that had qualified for the postseason just three times in the last two decades. But as Brady mentioned, Manning delivered. Across 14 seasons in Indianapolis, Manning led the Colts to the postseason 11 times, making two Super Bowls and winning one.

And now, Fernando Mendoza is heading down a similar path.

While Mendoza wasn’t as famous as Manning during his initial collegiate career, the Indiana Hoosiers’ product turned heads last season. A Heisman Trophy winner, Mendoza led the Hoosiers to the school’s first national championship before the Raiders drafted him first overall.

Furthermore, he would be asked to lead a struggling franchise just like Manning led the Colts. The Raiders haven’t won a playoff game for over two decades, and their last playoff appearance came in 2021. The team has been through multiple quarterbacks in the past few years. And now, they’re expecting Mendoza to become the face of the franchise.

Fortunately, Mendoza has Tom Brady as a mentor, and he has recently shared some advice he received from the seven-time Super Bowl champion.

“I think what he said as a quarterback is you need to be the most of everything. You need to be the most competitive. You need to be the most leader. You have to have the most leadership,” Mendoza said of Brady.

That said, while Brady believes that Mendoza will have the same expectations that Manning had, there’s still one thing that makes Mendoza different from Manning. While the former Colts quarterback was thrown directly into the fire, the Raiders’ No. 1 pick would be asked to learn and develop behind Kirk Cousins before getting the starting quarterback job.