Should the Las Vegas Raiders take Fernando Mendoza or Dante Moore with the No. 1 pick?
Or should they even take a quarterback at all? The Raiders are riddled with holes throughout the roster and will need more than just a signal-caller or one first-round pick to claw their way out of the gutter in a brutal AFC West that isn't getting any easier.
Plus, the 2027 draft class is supposed to be generational when it comes to quarterbacks, and John Spytek could either take another premier player this year or trade back and be sitting on a mountain of picks next April at an early stage in their rebuild. Then, they can insert the quarterback.
Those were some of the conversations that were happening last year as soon as the Silver and Black locked up the top choice in the 2026 NFL Draft and in the months that followed. While Mendoza has yet to play any consequential snaps for the Raiders, selecting him already looks like the right choice.
Not because he's wowed in real action for Las Vegas, but because that "generational" 2027 class of quarterbacks has fallen flat on its face. It feels like the Raiders got on the Titanic's last lifeboat with Mendoza, and to boot, the Indiana Hoosiers don't look like world-beaters without him.
The stars may have finally aligned for Mark Davis' franchise to have some good luck, if all continues to go well.
2027 QB class flopping must have Raiders thanking their lucky stars for Fernando Mendoza
Dante Moore. Arch Manning. Brendan Sorsby. LaNorris Sellers. Darian Mensah. CJ Carr. Trinidad Chambliss. CJ Bailey. Jayden Maiava. Nico Iamaleava. Drew Mestemaker. Julian Sayin. Sam Leavitt. John Mateer. Josh Hoover.
These were the names that were supposed to entice Las Vegas to wait another year to find their signal-caller of the future. Knowing what we know now, that would have been a foolish decision, especially because the Raiders aren't currently set to draft atop the board with Kirk Cousins.
As The Ringer's Tom Pelissero noted, NFL scouts are skeptical that most of the top quarterback prospects are even going to enter the 2027 draft, in large part because they have played so poorly and probably aren't getting the best feedback. Imagine if Las Vegas had put its eggs in this basket.
Mestemaker is the only one worth an early first-round pick when you combine production and NFL-level traits that would lead evaluators to believe that he has a higher ceiling. The others have either dramatically underperformed this year or they just don't project as game-altering NFL players.
Considering Las Vegas has already won three games with Cousins under center, it is unlikely that Spytek would be picking near the very top of the board. That would put him out of range for Mestemaker, that is, if he even declares. It's just his first year in Power 4 football, after all.
Moore looked like a shell of himself at the beginning of the year and is dealing with a major injury. Manning has not progressed. Sellers is getting better but is still very much a work in progress. The same can be said for Carr. Mensah and Chambliss don't quite seem like they'll translate.
And that is the upper echelon of the aforementioned group.
The Raiders made out like bandits with Mendoza, who, at this point, we can comfortably say would have been the top pick in 2025 over Cam Ward, the top selection in 2026, and the first drafted in 2027, ahead of any of those quarterbacks previously listed. Las Vegas picked a good year to be bad.
For once.
If fans need proof that Mendoza was not just a product of a strong system at Indiana, the Hoosiers are very much struggling against Big Ten competition this year. They've squeaked by in all but two conference games (a big win over Rutgers and a loss to Ohio State). Mendoza was rolling teams.
Josh Hoover, Mendoza's replacement, isn't having nearly the same success with an even better defense to help him out and a great receiver tandem in Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh. He was benched during Saturday's overtime win at home against an iffy, at best, Minnesota team.
Mendoza made the Hoosiers national champions; he wasn't just some system quarterback who was carried by his teammates. This college football season is proving that, even if Mendoza hasn't had a chance to prove that point himself on an NFL field in full capacity.
Just imagine a scenario where the Raiders took David Bailey, Carnell Tate or Arvell Reese with the No. 1 pick. Would they really be big enough impact players over the coming years to offset the drop-off from Mendoza to the next-best quarterback prospect? It really doesn't seem like that will be the case.
In so many ways, it is an NFL general manager's job to play the odds. And a lot of decisions are made in the name of projections or betting on a certain player or position group to develop. But NFL front offices are notoriously bad at evaluating the quarterback position.
Mestemaker is now considered the top prospect at the position, but in August, he received zero such votes. Moore received 14 votes before the season, but now has zero with the calendar flipping to November. Things change in an instant, so don't kick the can down the road to find a quarterback.
Thankfully, Spytek had the presence of mind not to do that, and the Raiders may have landed the best signal-caller in at least a three-year span. Some of this was luck, as Las Vegas was bad in the right year, but a lot of teams in the Silver and Black's position may have traded back. More picks are good.
But as soon as those picks become names and not just faceless commodities full of hope and optimism, they are a lot less appealing. How many first-round picks have the Raiders wasted over the years? How many times have they waited for the next year's class to snag a young quarterback?
No more.
Mendoza should be under center in Las Vegas for the next decade or more, and hopefully, we can look back on anyone doubting the selection or the process as foolish. Based on how this college football season has gone, it already seems valid to do so.
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