Las Vegas Raiders fans have long been enamored with quarterback Fernando Mendoza. He showed incredible promise throughout the 2025 college football season at Indiana while the Silver and Black struggled through yet another brutal campaign at the NFL level.
It was a synchronicity, or a meaningful coincidence, that their paths crossed, as the Raiders completely tanked and got atop the 2026 NFL Draft board at seemingly the exact moment that Mendoza rose to the occasion and solidified himself as the No. 1 pick in April.
While it may just be to spark a dialogue, not everyone is fully convinced that Mendoza should be Las Vegas' pick when the event begins later this month. Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti, however, spoke about Mendoza at Indiana's Pro Day, and his words confirm what Raiders fans know in their hearts.
Curt Cignetti's Fernando Mendoza praise is all Las Vegas Raiders fans need to hear
Cignetti spoke with NFL Network's Rhett Lewis live on the air before the festivities began in Bloomington on Wednesday afternoon. Mendoza's now-former head coach couldn't stop raving about the Raiders' likely top draft pick, beginning with what he saw from him at California.
"It didn't take much Cal tape (to be convinced). I saw, after three or four plays, the physical attributes. Having the young one (Fernando's brother, Alberto) here, and knowing the family, and how they were brought up -- the competitiveness, inteligence, that kind of thing, the special intangibles -- he came a long way. But I have never been around anybody that has ever prepared like he did. He wanted to be a great player. Tom Brady was his idol, and (Mendoza) did everything within the realm of possibility to be the best he can be. And won the Heisman, plays his best at the end when the games were tight. Went 16-0, probably be the first guy taken in the draft. The thing I will say is, as good as he is, he still will improve immensely. Barely scratched the surface of his potential. Compete, and when the chips are down, he plays his very, very best. Respect from his teammates because of the type of competitior he is and how he prepares. Special guy."
Whew. It is hard to beat a description like that, especially from a now-legendary college football coach like Cignetti. Coaches tend to praise their players, especially ahead of the draft, but one could tell that every word Cignetti spoke here came from the bottom of his heart.
When asked about Mendoza's development, from the moment he got to Bloomington to Wednesday, when he returned to Hoosierville for his Pro Day, Cignetti provided another interesting answer that will get Raiders fans pumped up.
"Slow development in the spring, like most of the new quarterbacks who we've gotten. ... Better in fall camp. Built off early-season success. Normally, there's a game in the first two or three, where they really play well and take off. And the same could be said for him. But the thing about him is, what he really put on tape and showed is when you were playing in those big games, and the game was on the line, he played his very best. That's a special quality."
Almost no rookies, especially quarterbacks, have it all figured out on Day 1. But constant progress and improvement will be the name of the game for Mendoza in Las Vegas, and based on what Cignetti said, it sounds like Raider Nation can count on that.
To wrap up the interview, Cignetti was asked about the question marks surrounding Indiana's offense and whether they truly prepared Mendoza for the next level. The Hoosiers' head coach didn't buy that argument for Mendoza.
"People gotta have something to talk about, right? There's a lot of time between the last game of the season and the NFL Draft, so people come up about anything. He's going to go in there and learn the system, learn the footwork. Repetition is the mother of learning. You learn the most from the games. He's going to be just fine. ... It's a process. But Fernando Mendoza will be a great football player one day in the NFL."