The 2026 NFL Draft is less than a month away, but everyone has a good sense of who the Las Vegas Raiders are going to take with the No. 1 overall pick. The Raiders are going to shock absolutely no one when they draft Indiana Hoosier national champion (never thought those two terms would be next to each other) Fernando Mendoza with the first pick.
Mendoza just won the Heisman Trophy and led Indiana to its first-ever national title. It was incredible what Mendoza was able to do in Bloomington which is mostly known as a basketball town.
Kirk Cousins faced a similar situation at Michigan State. While the Spartan legend never won a national title, he did lead Michigan State to some of its best seasons in program history while attending a school that values basketball over football, for the most part.
Now, the two stars, who have a lot in common, are likely to be teammates after Adam Schefter reported that Cousins will sign a five-year deal worth $172 million with the Raiders. However, it’s essentially just one year of guaranteed money so I doubt he sticks around for five years.
Kirk Cousins will sign a five-year, $172M deal with the Las Vegas Raiders that in reality is a one-year, fully-guaranteed $20 million deal that also contains a club option for two years at $80M, per @AdamSchefter. pic.twitter.com/wia9xGgTQG
— ESPN (@espn) April 2, 2026
Before any Raiders fans — or just Cousins or MSU haters — freak out about the insane price tag on the 37-year-old backup Falcons quarterback, it’s essentially just a one-year deal with just $20 million of the $172 million guaranteed and a club option for two years at $80 million. He’ll likely play this season in Las Vegas and either retire or get released following the season.
The Raiders absolutely knew what they were doing here. Mendoza is a really talented young quarterback who will need a mentor early on and Cousins has a very similar personality and he’ll take the Indiana quarterback under his wing.
And it’s actually likely that Cousins will start in 2026 and then give way to Mendoza either midway through the season or entering 2027.
Not only is that going to be great for Mendoza’s growth, but it’s going to give Cousins one final chance to start for an NFL team before he inevitably retires. Having Mendoza sit back and learn from a quarterback who’s been through it all and who has been known as a great leader is going to instill so many elite qualities in the rookie.
Even if Cousins is QB1 to begin the year, he knows the job will eventually be Mendoza’s (again, this is all assuming he gets picked No. 1 overall) and he’s going to do everything to help out the young quarterback and Big Ten rival. Learning from a quarterback who dropped to the fourth round and had to scratch and claw his way to QB1 status in the NFL couldn’t be a better scenario for Mendoza.
Any early success he experiences will be because Cousins is the perfect mentor both on and off the field. The Raiders couldn’t ask for a better veteran quarterback to lead the No. 1 overall pick.
Tom Bady’s mindset is good news for Kirk Cousins
Tom Brady is a part owner of the Raiders which makes this five-year deal even more interesting. Is the legendary quarterback helping out one of his former opponents? Is the Michigan Man helping out the Spartan? It sure seems that way.
Brady has also been a big proponent of not starting rookie quarterbacks immediately. He’s been quoted as saying that it’s a “tragedy” that rookie quarterbacks get forced into action. Brady believes that the development a young quarterback in the NFL needs before he can take on the league is important in a backup role.
If the Raiders listen to the part owner and NFL legend, Cousins is going to be the team’s Week 1 starter and the likely pick of Mendoza will be QB2.
This looks to be Cousins’ farewell tour and he’s going to have one final opportunity to start.