The worst-kept secret in football has finally been spilled: Kirk Cousins will be the Las Vegas Raiders' starting quarterback.
After months of dangling who would be under center in Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season against the Miami Dolphins, Klint Kubiak isn't hiding what everyone knew to be true anymore. Fernando Mendoza put up a good fight, but the No. 1 pick in this year's draft will start the year on the sidelines.
Kubiak stood at the podium on Wednesday morning after the team's practice and said succinctly that "Kirk's going to be the starting quarterback." For a young head coach who loves to shroud everything he says in mystery, this was a big development. Let's dive into what this all means for the Raiders.
Klint Kubiak names Kirk Cousins Raiders' starting QB (but it's not over for Fernando Mendoza)
Just because Cousins will be out there on opening weekend, and barring unforeseen circumstances, probably for the first month of the campaign, doesn't mean that Raider Nation won't see Mendoza this year. Yes, the Mendoza era getting pushed off even a few weeks is disappointing, but it's far from over.
Even though the braintrust in Las Vegas was pretty clear from the jump that they want their young quarterback to sit behind an established veteran, Cousins still has to play well for the Raiders to fend the young player off. Recent history says that may not happen.
And while Cousins looked good in the preseason against primarily backups playing vanilla defenses, that is a far cry from having success in the regular season. One or two bad performances, and the fanbase and media will be storming HQ in Las Vegas to put the young gun in the game.
Part of the reasoning for starting Cousins is that he demonstrated more mastery of the offense. And that's fair at this point, but Mendoza showed tons of promise in the preseason, enough that Cousins will have to be pretty lights out to quiet the noise.
Both Kubiak and John Spytek have said that the best players will play for the Raiders, and if Cousins isn't looking like that, then they'll be forced to make a change. They can't waste another year of Brock Bowers or Maxx Crosby's prime with a quarterback not getting the job done.
It's entirely possible that Cousins keeps this team afloat in 2026. And as we've said all offseason, maybe part of the equation is that the coaching staff and front office want to make sure that the team is ready to support Mendoza before throwing the young player to the wolves.
But Kubiak announcing Cousins as the starting quarterback was just a formality; everyone knew that it was coming after what fans saw this preseason. It doesn't change the fact that Raider Nation could still see a lot of Mendoza during the 2026 season, though.
Now, fans are painted into a weird corner, as the majority want to see the rookie play a lot and feel that the season is only a true success if the team knows that it has its future quarterback. But the only way Mendoza will get in the game now is if injury strikes or the team is failing with Cousins under center.
Nobody wants either of those to happen, so it's an interesting spot to be in as a fan.
Kirk Cousins' practice absence highlights real Fernando Mendoza concern for Raiders
Oddly enough, Kubiak announced that Cousins would be the starter after a practice that the veteran quarterback did not participate in. Las Vegas' head coach said that "[Cousins] was not out there today. That was by design for a rest day, a vet day." This highlighted a key Mendoza question.
Following the preseason finale, Kubiak told reporters that he wished Mendoza and the other rookies had three more exhibition games to play in because they could all use the development. A reporter then asked Kubiak how they plan to bring Mendoza along with so many of his reps suddenly gone.
In training camp and the preseason, Mendoza got plenty of practice reps and live snaps in games. But as the Raiders start game-planning for opponents in the regular season, all of those opportunities will be handed to the starting quarterback. So, how does Mendoza get better?
The answer on Wednesday, it seemed, was to mysteriously give Cousins "a vet day," which allowed Mendoza to work with the 1s. This was probably the last hurrah for the young player, at least in the meantime, as all eyes will shift toward the Dolphins as soon as later today, if they haven't already.
Going forward, Cousins will get the lion's share, if not all, of the reps. Kubiak recently told reporters that Mendoza will have to stay ready, and that he'll do so by spending "a lot of long nights" with QB coach Mike Sullivan. That may not be the ideal plan, but it's a plan nonetheless.
Kubiak also noted that he and other coaches on the staff, like Andrew Janocko and Mike McCoy, have always developed backup quarterbacks and players who don't get practice reps, so maybe this isn't as big an issue as it seems. But it'll be interesting to see how the team handles it going forward.
Raider Nation is absolutely starved for success, and Mendoza represents a beacon of hope for the future. But the future cannot come fast enough, so the fanbase is surely a bit disappointed that Cousins is the starter, even if the writing was always on the wall.
At least we have clarity now and can move forward. Thankfully, something tells me that those in the building knew all along that it'd be Cousins, so this isn't likely a shock for the players. They knew what was going on, and they've been prepared for it.
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