Raiders bench top pick Fernando Mendoza, hand Week 1 to 38-year-old Kirk Cousins

The Las Vegas Raiders will open the 2026 season with Kirk Cousins under center, not Fernando Mendoza, the quarterback the franchise selected with the No. 1 overall pick in April. First-year head coach Klint Kubiak confirmed the decision on Wednesday, ending weeks of speculation over a competition that had shadowed the team's entire training camp.

The announcement means Mendoza, the Indiana product who won the Heisman Trophy and led the Hoosiers to an undefeated national championship season, will begin his professional career on the bench. The Raiders host the Miami Dolphins in the season opener on September 13, with the team formally confirming Cousins as the starter in a statement posted to the team's website.

The numbers behind the decision

Kubiak's staff based the call largely on preseason performance. Cousins completed 13 of 17 passes for 101 yards and a touchdown, a 76.5 percent completion rate, across his preseason work. Mendoza, adjusting to NFL speed and schemes for the first time, completed 25 of 45 attempts for 240 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions, a 55.6 percent clip. Kubiak described the rookie's outings as containing "flashes of brilliance" alongside "rookie lumps," according to reporting on the competition.

Cousins, 38, enters his 15th NFL season and fourth different franchise as a Week 1 starter, having previously opened seasons with Washington, the Minnesota Vikings and the Atlanta Falcons. His career regular-season record stands at 88-77-2 across 167 starts. His path back to a starting job was circuitous. Cousins tore his Achilles tendon late in the 2023 season with Minnesota, signed with Atlanta as a free agent in 2024, and was benched there in favor of rookie Michael Penix Jr. entering 2025. He reclaimed the starting role only when Penix suffered a partially torn ACL in November 2025, going 5-3 over the final eight starts of the season before reaching free agency and signing with Las Vegas. Las Vegas is betting that a full, healthy offseason working with Kubiak's system restores the accuracy and pocket management that made Cousins a four-time Pro Bowl selection earlier in his career.

How Mendoza got here

Mendoza transferred to Indiana in 2025 and immediately reshaped the program, guiding the Hoosiers to their first conference championship since 1967 and the school's first national title, an undefeated run that ended with a College Football Playoff championship win over Miami. Raiders majority owner Mark Davis, minority owner Tom Brady and general manager John Spytek watched from Indiana's sideline before that title game, and the team used the top pick in the draft two months later. He is only the fifth Heisman winner the Raiders organization has drafted, joining Marcus Allen, Bo Jackson, Tim Brown and Charles Woodson, a lineage the team touted at the time of the pick.

Kubiak, hired this offseason after a career built largely around veteran-led offenses, signaled early that he was open to starting a rookie only if the rookie clearly won the job outright. The Raiders finished 3-14 last season, and the front office's decision to sign Cousins in free agency, even after selecting a quarterback first overall, was widely read as a hedge that would let Mendoza develop away from the pressure of Week 1 snaps if the competition stayed close.

Who this affects

The decision reaches beyond the quarterback room. It leaves Las Vegas fans, who spent the offseason anticipating the debut of a No. 1 pick with a Heisman pedigree, watching a 38-year-old journeyman start instead. It puts pressure on Cousins, who is playing on a one-year contract and has openly served as a mentor figure to the rookie, to justify the move with results against a schedule that opens with Miami and does not get easier quickly. And it puts Aidan O'Connell, who started games for the Raiders last season, in the unusual position of third string behind both an established veteran and the top pick. The offensive line and receiving corps built around the quarterback room this offseason were designed with both timelines in mind, giving Kubiak the flexibility to lean on Cousins' timing and experience early while still developing packages tailored to Mendoza's mobility and arm strength for whenever his turn comes.

It also puts Mendoza in a historical group that has grown rare. According to an analysis of every No. 1 overall quarterback since 2018, every top pick at the position since Baker Mayfield, including Kyler Murray, Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Bryce Young, Caleb Williams and Cam Ward, started Week 1 of his rookie season. Mayfield himself opened 2018 behind veteran Tyrod Taylor in Cleveland before taking over in Week 3 and throwing 27 touchdowns against 14 interceptions the rest of that season.

"He played really good football. I'm really happy with all three of our quarterbacks. Kirk's had a really good offseason, very good camp and he's earned it," Kubiak said of Cousins.

What happens next

Kubiak has not committed to a timeline for turning the offense over to Mendoza, saying only, "Let's work to Miami first," when asked how the season might unfold for the rookie. That leaves open the possibility Mendoza could take over in-season, either by beating out Cousins in practice or because of injury, a scenario the Raiders' roster construction already anticipates given Cousins is signed through this year alone.

For now, the Raiders open the season on September 13 with a 38-year-old quarterback under center and a rookie who led a college team to an undefeated national title watching from the sideline, a bet by a first-year coaching staff that experience, not draft pedigree, gives Las Vegas its best chance to open the year competitively.