The offices were largely empty at the Las Vegas Raiders' team facility on Wednesday. And no, they weren't taking the day off work or pulling some kind of April Fool's Day prank. The Silver and Black's braintrust was in Bloomington, Indiana, watching Fernando Mendoza take the field for his Pro Day.
Not only were chief decision-makers John Spytek and Klint Kubiak on hand, but offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan, both of whom are expected to work intimately with Mendoza in Las Vegas soon, took in the action at the Hoosiers' event as well.
Several Raiders executives also observed from the sidelines, making this a full-fledged Silver and Black event. And Mendoza strutted his stuff in front of the franchise that he'll soon be the face of. So much so that NFL Draft analysts are buzzing about his performance, and fans will want to hear it.
Las Vegas Raiders fans will love the Fernando Mendoza buzz after his Pro Day
Immediately after Mendoza's workout had been completed, NFL Network kicked it back to the studio, where renowned draft analysts Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks sat, ready to break down all that they saw. Jeremiah led off with some basic boxes that Mendoza needed to, and did, check.
"To me, there's three things you gotta accomplish today (if you're Mendoza). Number one, he showed up. That's pretty much what he needed to do," Jeremiah joked. "Number two, he's in phenomenal shape. Really, you can tell he's added that weight, close to 240 pounds. And number three, he threw the ball as well as you saw him throw it on tape. And a lot more under center, so you get to see some of that as well. If you add objectives in this thing, those were the three, and he accomplished all three."
Brooks then chimed in with his analysis of Mendoza's performance.
"Yeah, he threw the ball really well. I think the one thing that we don't have the advantage of being able to be there in person is just to feel the velocity on his throws, but you certainly could sense that he had a lot of pace on his throws. I love the fact that the ball was consistently in the strike zone. We talked about, in these workouts, when you don't have a defense on the field, you don't necessarily want to see the ball hit the ground. But more importantly, I want to see consistent in every phase. He did that, he delivered in a bunch of different ranges, a bunch of different throws. Touch, timing, anticipation, he did all that. It's exactly what you want to see in a Pro Day workout."
Mendoza also spoke with NFL Network's Rhett Lewis once he got done throwing, and the Raiders' likely future quarterback mentioned that he wanted the team's Pro Day to be no-nonsense. They wanted to demonstrate translatable skills to NFL personnel. Brooks thinks he accomplished that.
"I think I am fascinated by his mentality. His mindset. The way he approaches things. He talks about being process-oriented, but what you're seeing is his actions match his words. When he talked about the Pro Day, how they didn't want to do a bunch of silly stuff, they wanted to just go out there and do the things that translated well to the National Football League. I like that. In hearing him talk to Rhett, just about the overall process, to me, he strikes me as one of those high-IQ quarterbacks that has a process that he's going to create, and that process is going to lead to a lot of success at the NFL level."
It wasn't just the NFL Network crew who were impressed with Mendoza's showing on Wednesday. Before even watching his throwing session at Indiana Pro Day, ESPN's Louis Riddick, a trusted voice in Raider Nation, had incredibly high praise for Mendoza.
"I've just watched him warm up for the past half hour, and he was really working on (taking snaps under center). He looked super smooth, man. The guy is really put together. From the lower body on down, he has just got tremendous leg definition, leg strength, tremendous balance. He was working on throwing off different platforms, rolling right, rolling left off of play-action fakes, driving the ball short, intermediate and deep. He just looks really composed. He looks, quite honestly, like a presumptive No. 1 overall pick. Like a franchise-caliber quarterback."
And once the workout started, Riddick's opinion certainly didn't change. In fact, he was chopping it up with Spytek on the sideline when Mendoza unleashed a pinpoint 65-yard pass during the workout, and Riddick made it known that both he and Spytek were impressed. That matters a great deal.
Indiana's Pro Day wasn't really an evaluation point for the Raiders from a football perspective. They've watched every conceivable play of Mendoza's over the last three years, so they fully know what they're getting from him as a football player.
But getting to watch him play and operate in person is fairly validating, and Las Vegas will continue to vet him as a human being with a whiteboard meeting and a dinner during this trip to Indiana, as well as on a 30 visit at Raiders HQ and via two more Zoom calls before the draft later this month.
It is safe to say that Raider Nation wasn't alone in being impressed with Mendoza's performance at his Pro Day. Several prominent NFL Draft analysts were enamored with what Mendoza did on Wednesday, and it sounds like he even impressed Spytek.