BLOOMINGTON, IN — The Raiders have been careful not to prematurely anoint Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza as the first pick overall in next month’s draft.
As general manager John Spytek pointed out this week at the NFL owners meetings, the club will let their draft evaluation process play through to the finish line, wherever that takes them.
Even if that means using the first pick on someone else. Or perhaps even trading it away.
Then came Mendoza’s Indiana pro day on Wednesday, and let’s just say the coronation can now officially begin.
Let’s start with the fact that the Raiders sent an army of personnel executives to Bloomington to watch their soon-to-be quarterback, with Spytek joined by Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak, director of scouting Brandon Yeargan, assistant general manager Brian Stark, vice president of player personnel Brandon Hunt, vice president of football operations and strategy Mark Thewes, offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan.
The large group of coaches and executives weren’t just there to get one last look at Mendoza and the 23 Indiana teammates who joined him at John Mellencamp Pavilion.
Among them were wide receivers Omar Cooper Jr. and Elijah Sarratt and cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, all of whom are projected to be selected between the first and third rounds.
No, the Raiders were sending a clear message to Mendoza: You are our guy. And from this point forward, every corner of this organization is behind you.
That powerful message was reiterated Wednesday evening when Mendoza met privately with his new Raiders family members.
They will gather one more time in a couple of weeks when Mendoza makes a top 30 visit to Las Vegas, where the new face of the franchise will get face time with the entire organization.
But if that wasn’t enough, Mendoza capped the deal by completing an incredibly crisp and decisive 53 of 56 passes in a pro day performance that left even the most jaded talent evaluators picking their jaws off the ground.
“Wow, that was incredible,” an NFL executive said.
Two of Mendoza’s incompletions were drops by his receivers, the other was an overthrow on a ball that traveled over 60 yards in the air and just missed his receiver’s outstretched arms.
Mendoza was machine-like in how he navigated the sequence, calling out instructions to his teammates before the snap of the ball and delivering pinpoint strikes on nearly every throw he made.
Just as impressively, he took only two blink-of-the-eye breaks, quickly guzzling some water before getting right back to work. Showing no signs of fatigue, he put an exclamation point on it all with two touchdown throws of more than 60 yards.
“It’s not just the accuracy and the velocity,” marveled an NFL personnel executive. “It’s how he led his receivers, it was the fundamentals, it was his command. Very, very impressive.”
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If the Raiders had any lingering doubts about what to do with the first overall pick, Mendoza put them all to rest on Wednesday.
As the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and national champion and the prohibitive top pick in the draft, he didn’t even have to show up to Indiana’s pro day, let alone actually throw. But in an ode to the program and teammates that helped shape him into the best quarterback in the country, he wanted to be there for them one last time.
“The main goal of today was to serve my teammates, and I think that I was able to do that,” Mendoza said. “To be able to put them in position where they were able to make plays, show what they got, and I’m very excited for them in the future.”
“I’m just trying to be the best quarterback I can be in September, rather than right now here in April,” Mendoza said.
All of which made his performance all the more impressive. On a day set up to put the spotlight on his Indiana teammates and, hopefully, raise their draft status, it was Mendoza who stood tallest.
It was an emphatic reminder of what he meant to the Hoosiers’ historical run, but also a clear message to the Raiders not to overthink things.
But he did it so smoothly, efficiently, and naturally, you wouldn’t even have known he was quasi auditioning one last time.
“I wouldn’t really say it’s a mentality of trying to be the top pick, I’m trying to be the best me possible,” Mendoza said. “And in that aspect, whatever team picks me, you only need one team to believe in you, whether you’re the first pick, whether the last pick, or whatever.”
It’s a done deal at this point. Mendoza is the Raiders’ pick.
The only question now is whether he’ll be their opening-day starter.
“I think ideally you don’t want him to start from day one,” said Kubiak. “You’d love him to be able to learn behind somebody. That’s in a perfect world.”
But as Kubiak and many others have learned over the years, the perfect world rarely exists in the NFL.
“Sometimes they have to play from day one, and it’s our job as a coach to get them ready to go,” Kubiak said.
For all intents and purposes, the Raiders began the process of getting Mendoza ready to start on day one on Wednesday.
There soon-to-be quarterback left no doubt about that.
