Raiders’ OC Says Fernando Mendoza Is Challenging Coaching Staff With Questions

Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza isn’t just being challenged; he’s challenging his coaching staff.

The former Heisman Trophy winner and College Football Playoff National Champion is only a few weeks into his first offseason program as a pro.

Offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko told the Raiders’ podcast “Upon Further Review” on May 18 that he is so eager to learn that it is prompting the coaching staff to reevaluate how they view their offense.

Janocko also said it was good to be getting to know the other quarterbacks in his room.

“It’s been a lot of fun bringing a bunch of voices together, a lot of unfamiliar faces, building familiarity, and then some familiar faces with Kirk [Cousins], the unfamiliar faces with Aidan [O’Connell], with Fernando. Getting that together has been a lot of fun, just hearing different ideas and since Kirk and I had worked together the last time, seeing what we’ve learned and how we’ve grown, because you’re always trying to grow in this league,” Janocko said of his first week with the full contingent of offensive players.

“Where have you had success? What have you learned from mistakes-wise? And they’re getting the fresh faces in there, the rookies, the new guys that you haven’t been around, hearing their experiences and just cultivating a relationship because this league is all about relationships. And if you can build the relationships, the trust, everybody trusts each other. We’re all pulling our own weight. That’s what’s been the fun part of the last couple of weeks.”

Janocko and head coach Klint Kubiak both have a background with Cousins. Both served on the offensive coaching staff of the Minnesota Vikings when Cousins was there: Kubiak served as quarterbacks coach from 2019-2020, then offensive coordinator in 2021; Janocko joined the staff in 2015 as an offensive quality control coach, then moved to the offensive line from 2017-2019, wide receivers in 2020, and quarterbacks in 2021.

Janocko said that experience is beneficial.

“I think the big thing is that there’s already a baseline of trust, that we know that we’re all pulling for each other,” he said. “We’re all working together for the same thing. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We know what to expect. And then where have we grown since the last time we’ve worked together? That’s been … a lot of fun feeling that out and just getting to work, but having a having a general baseline of knowledge of the person, somebody we’ve stayed in touch with, obviously, throughout the years, and then it was a really neat thing to be able to pull that back together.”

His rookie quarterback, on the other hand, is new to their system, but is so eager to learn that he is actually making his coaches re-evaluate themselves.

“He’s a tremendous worker. He’s somebody that wants to know the whys of everything, the story behind everything, what we’re calling, but why are we calling it? And then what’s the building blocks of the footwork, what’s the building blocks of his vision, how he’s going to see it, how he’s going to articulate it to the offense. He’s really just a sponge that wants to know everything,” Janocko said of Mendoza.

“So, it’s been really cool to be able to have to answer all those questions … and what it does is it makes you be on your toes for everything, but it also makes you evaluate everything and maybe we could get better if we did. Yeah, I know we’ve had some success doing it one way, but we could do it another way and be even better.”