Mendoza Makes His First Raiders Start Against Seattle
Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman winner from Indiana, starts for Las Vegas (4-5) against Seattle (5-4) at 4:05 p.m. ET on CBS — one of three first career starts in the league on Sunday.
The Heisman winner's first NFL start, in a stadium built for noise, against a defense that knows exactly what he is.
The late window's headline is a debut. Fernando Mendoza makes his first NFL start for the Las Vegas Raiders (4-5) against the Seattle Seahawks (5-4) at Allegiant Stadium. Kickoff is 4:05 p.m. ET on CBS. Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy at Indiana. The NFL is a different examination, and Seattle grades it.
The job opened at the trade deadline, when Las Vegas traded Kirk Cousins back to Minnesota and cleared the runway. Mendoza has appeared in one game this season, in relief. Everything else on his résumé — the Heisman season, the national championship game run at Indiana — happened against defenses that couldn't do what Seattle's can.
He isn't alone in the experiment. Sunday features three first career starts at quarterback — Mendoza, Arizona's Carson Beck and Miami's Kyle McCord — and it's only the second time multiple quarterbacks have debuted as starters in the same week outside of Week 1 and the 1987 strike season. By Sunday night, 50 quarterbacks will have started a game this season.
Seattle's interest is colder. The Seahawks are 5-4, in the thick of the NFC West race, and a road game against a first-time starter is the kind of gift the schedule rarely offers twice. Their defense gets to introduce Mendoza to NFL speed; their offense gets to make sure the introduction is the whole story.
This story updates live once the game kicks off and closes as the game's full summary at the final whistle.
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A little more perspective.
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