Everyone knows the basics about how the Las Vegas Raiders are setting Fernando Mendoza up for success. With a veteran quarterback in Kirk Cousins to show him the ropes, a coaching staff full of great teachers with experience and personnel improvements on offense, Mendoza has it made.
But I think Raider Nation may be underestimating just how much experience this coaching staff has with not just elite quarterbacks, but some of the best to ever play the game, as well as promising young signal-callers early in their careers. They cover the whole spectrum in terms of know-how.
This is a hidden Mendoza advantage that the Silver and Black have that could matter quickly. Rookies need as much help as they can get at their first training camp, and with this collective résumé from those in Mendoza's ear, the Raiders' golden ticket under center could develop in a flash.
Let's take a look at every notable quarterback that Las Vegas' staff has developed or crossed paths with.
Coaching staff's experience with QBs will benefit Raiders' Fernando Mendoza
First of all, Mendoza will be in a quarterback room with Kirk Cousins and Aidan O'Connell, both of whom, but especially Cousins, will have plenty to share to aid Mendoza early in his NFL journey. But the four coaches who will work most intimately with Mendoza have star-studded QB CVs as well.
Head coach Klint Kubiak was the offensive quality control coach at Texas A&M from 2010 to 2011, and he watched Ryan Tannehill develop from a backup into the No. 8 overall pick. Then, as a graduate assistant for the Aggies in 2012, he saw a freshman Johnny Manziel win the Heisman Trophy.
As the offensive quality control coach for the Minnesota Vikings in 2014, he helped a rookie Teddy Bridgewater get his feet wet in the NFL. Around this time, he also worked with players who had solid careers like Matt Cassel, Josh Freeman, Trevor Siemian and Case Keenum.
By 2019, Kubiak was back with the Vikings as a quarterbacks coach, where he worked with Cousins for three seasons, the third of which as the offensive coordinator. This was arguably the best three-year stretch of Cousins' career, as he made two Pro Bowls and lit up the stat sheet.
In 2022, although it wasn't a successful year by any measure, Kubiak had the chance to work with future Hall of Fame quarterback Russell Wilson as the Denver Broncos' passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Surely, he picked up a thing or two from an all-time great like Wilson.
When Kubiak became the passing game coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers in 2023, not only did he help Brock Purdy to, by far, his best statistical season (as well as his lone Pro Bowl and a fourth-place finish in MVP voting), but Sam Darnold started to get his mojo back that year as a backup.
Of course, Kubiak reunited with Darnold in 2025 as the Seattle Seahawks' offensive coordinator and won a Super Bowl. But in between those two stints, he also worked with Derek Carr in 2024, and the New Orleans Saints' offense was the best in the league before injuries decimated them.
Okay, let's just take a second to breathe. Obviously, that is an insane list of great quarterbacks to have rubbed shoulders with for Kubiak, and he is just the beginning of this list. Don't worry, we'll tidy up the lists for OC Andrew Janocko, QB coach Mike Sullivan and assistant head coach Mike McCoy.
As far as Janocko, he also has experience with Bridgewater, Keenum, Cousins, Carr and Darnold. But he also spent time as the offensive quality control coach for Sam Bradford in Minnesota in 2016, and helped Justin Fields to his two best years as the Chicago Bears' QB coach in 2022 and 2023.
Sullivan's list is quite a bit longer and more illustrious than Kubiak's or Janocko's. It starts with a year as an offensive assistant for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2003, working with Mark Brunell and Byron Leftwich. Then, he went to the New York Giants and crossed paths with two big-time legends.
Kurt Warner was the Giants' QB in 2004 when Sullivan arrived as the wide receivers coach. He spent six years in that role, developing talent for a young Eli Manning as well. Then, Manning wanted him as the quarterbacks coach, so Sullivan took on that role in 2010 and 2011.
Manning went to the Pro Bowl in 2011 and threw for a career-high in yards. In his second stint in New York, Sullivan was the quarterbacks coach for one season in 2015 and the offensive coordinator for two with Manning in 2016/2017. He had three more good years and another Pro Bowl appearance.
Geno Smith was also in that Giants quarterback room in 2017. Sullivan also crossed paths with Keenum in 2018 and with Ben Roethlisberger in his final season in 2021. Now, he didn't have much success with the trio of Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph over the next three years.
But Sullivan still brings an incredible résumé with tons of great experience to Las Vegas that will help out Mendoza. He is rivaled, however, by his coaching staff mate, McCoy, who brings a boatload of quarterback expertise to Raiders HQ as well.
McCoy, a former NFL quarterback himself, helped make Jake Delhomme look like an above-average player during his time with the Carolina Panthers. He also coached Vinny Testaverde during the 2007 season, who surely taught the young coach a thing or two in his final NFL season.
Tim Tebow also reaped the benefits of McCoy's coaching in 2010 and 2011 when McCoy was Denver's offensive coordinator. Did he ever look great? No. But the Raiders' now-assistant head coach kept the Broncos afloat with Tebow and Kyle Orton under center and won a playoff game.
In 2012, McCoy served as the offensive coordinator for PEYTON MANNING as well, before taking the head coaching gig for the San Diego Chargers, where he worked with Philip Rivers for four seasons. What a duo he got to work with for a half-decade, and what experience he can share with Mendoza.
After that, McCoy worked with a young Josh Rosen as the Arizona Cardinals' offensive coordinator in 2018, helped develop an inexperienced Trevor Lawrence from 2022 to 2024 as his quarterbacks coach, and encountered a downtrodden but soon-to-recover Mac Jones with the Jags as well.
Last season, McCoy was a senior offensive assistant and ultimately the interim head coach for the Tennessee Titans, where he worked with No. 1 pick Cam Ward. That background couldn't come at a better time, as he'll now be working with the top pick again in Mendoza.
For the Silver and Black, everything should be about giving Mendoza the proper tools that he needs to become a game-altering franchise quarterback. And while that has been achieved in a myriad of ways already this offseason, there is no substitute for great coaching.
Mendoza has that in spades with the Raiders' staff, who can draw on years and years of proficiency and a laundry list of great quarterbacks with whom they are familiar to help out Las Vegas' young stud. And that will matter both immensely and quickly at training camp this month.
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