Through two preseason games, Fernando Mendoza has pretty much looked the part of the future franchise quarterback the Las Vegas Raiders desperately need. Of course, there will be tough spots over the course of his rookie season, but the No. 1 overall pick is navigating them with savvy thus far.
If there's someone who can truly relate to being the top pick and being cast into a tough situation with the team that earned said pick the season before, it's Troy Aikman. The former Dallas Cowboy and current ESPN Monday Night Football analyst started 11 games for a 1-15 squad as a rookie in 1989.
All 11 of his starts that year were losses, as he had the inverse of an ideal touchdown-to-interception ratio (nine touchdowns, 18 interceptions). This is where I tell you that the Cowboys also had a first-year head coach (Jimmy Johnson) in 1989 to pair with a rookie quarterback, just as the Raiders do.
In Aikman's fourth season, with a huge assist from a big trade in October of 1989 that the fanbase on the other end still regards with disdain, the Cowboys won their first of three Super Bowls in four years. And Aikman is quite high on Mendoza already, so that bodes incredibly well at this juncture.
Troy Aikman is already seeing what he needs to see out of Raiders' Fernando Mendoza
Before what can best be regarded as an up-and-down outing for Mendoza against the Houston Texans in the Raiders' second preseason game, Aikman was on ESPN's pregame show with Scott Van Pelt. Van Pelt asked Aikman if he had seen any early signs that Mendoza is on the right track.
"You know, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but he has shown me already, in such a short time, that this young man is capable of being a really great player in this league," Aikman said.
With Van Pelt again after the game against the Texans, Aikman had even more praise for Mendoza, despite what most would consider a seesaw performance.
"I am really impressed with him," Aikman said. "As I said in the game, a lot of quarterbacks come into this league, and they have all this ability, but you just don’t know what kind of leader they are, how important the game is to them. Are they going to put in the time or do the little things? With him, you check every box and say, if he doesn’t have success with his talent and his mindset of wanting to be great, I would say then, which is oftentimes the case, I’d say the organization failed him and didn’t get enough good players around him.”
It's hard to know if Aikman would actually offer any harsh criticism of Mendoza at such an early stage in the young quarterback's career, if he had any. But Aikman generally doesn't hold back if he has a critique, and at a minimum, he wouldn't be as effusive in his praise of Mendoza if he didn't mean it.
Raiders fans should already be plenty excited about Mendoza. Aikman has only added to the list of reasons, with his perspective as a former No. 1 overall pick quarterback layered into his outlook as an analyst.
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