Raiders Coach Refuses to Name Obvious Starter Despite Veteran’s Dominant Preseason

Clear Facts

• Kirk Cousins completed 76.5% of his passes in preseason with a 110.2 passer rating, the best by a Raiders QB since 2017
• First-round rookie Fernando Mendoza threw interceptions in consecutive games and completed just over 50% of his passes
• Head coach Klint Kubiak won’t name Cousins the starter despite acknowledging Mendoza will take backup reps in regular-season practices

The Las Vegas Raiders wrapped up their preseason, and veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins clearly outperformed rookie first-round pick Fernando Mendoza. Yet first-year head coach Klint Kubiak continues to refuse naming a starting quarterback for the Sept. 13 regular-season opener against the Miami Dolphins.

The delay has become something of a spectacle, with Kubiak playing what appears to be a motivational mind game rather than making the obvious call. Last week, the coach explained he doesn’t want any player getting comfortable with their status on the team, including the quarterbacks.

“I still don’t think we need to name anybody,”

Kubiak told reporters after Thursday’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

But the numbers tell a clear story. Cousins completed 8 of 11 passes Thursday night in action limited to the first quarter. For the entire preseason, he posted a 76.5 completion percentage, going 13 of 17 for 101 yards with one touchdown.

That performance produced a 110.2 passer rating—the best mark by a Raiders quarterback since 2017 for anyone with a minimum of 17 attempts. In other words, Cousins dominated.

“Kirk looks great, he looks ruthlessly efficient,”

Mendoza himself acknowledged.

The rookie’s own performance painted a different picture. Mendoza threw interceptions in back-to-back games and completed just 5 of 9 attempts Thursday night, putting him barely above 50 percent completion for the second consecutive week.

The contradiction in Kubiak’s position becomes even more apparent when he discusses the rookie’s development needs.

“He needs another three preseason games, all those rookies do,”

Kubiak said of Mendoza.

“And now that the season is starting, the practice reps get smaller and that’s just life. But us, as coaches, we got to keep getting him ready to play, keep developing him.”

That statement essentially confirms what everyone already knows: Mendoza will be taking backup repetitions once regular-season practices begin. Standard NFL practice structure gives the starting quarterback the majority of work to prepare for games that count, while backups receive limited reps.

Kubiak even admitted Mendoza would benefit from more preseason games—not exactly a vote of confidence for immediate starting duty. Unless the coach is witnessing some secret practice dominance no one else in the organization has seen, this appears to be a delayed announcement for reasons known only to him.

The Raiders signed Cousins, a proven veteran, precisely for situations like this—to provide stability while a young quarterback develops. The preseason demonstrated exactly why that decision made sense. Now it’s just a matter of the coach making it official.

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