The Las Vegas Raiders have lost back-to-back games to the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots following an impressive and surprising 3-0 start to the season with veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins as the starting quarterback. With 6:06 left on the clock against the Patriots, Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak pulled Kirk Cousins and sent in 2026 No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza for his first regular-season snaps in the NFL.
After the game, former Patriots legends Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman weighed in on how Kubiak should manage the position on The Gronk & Jules Show on NFL on FOX’s YouTube channel.
“The poise he had for not even knowing like he was going to even play in the game. The poise he showed was phenomenal. I was proud of him,” Gronkowski said.
“Kirk Cousins is going to start again, and the next time they tank like they just tanked versus the Patriots is when Fernando is going to take over for the rest of the year. Okay, that’s my guess,” Gronkowski continued.
“Kirk Cousins, give him another chance. If he continues to be playing at a high level like he has been throughout the beginning of the season, well then he’s going to stay in. But if they have another game like they just had, it just shows that Kirk can only take them so far. We might as well just make it the Mendoza show now.”
Mendoza was solid in his time on the field, completing six of his eight passes for 48 yards without getting sacked after Cousins was sacked three times for a loss of 23 yards.
For Kubiak’s part, he is maintaining that putting Mendoza in the game was strictly about getting him experience and that he’s not considering making a change at starter at the moment.
“I wanted to get him some exposure…He did a good job. Yeah, all reps are valuable. Very important for him, Kubiak told reporters after the game.
It’ll be interesting to see if the coach’s approach changes if Cousins can’t get Las Vegas back on track.
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