Raiders All Pro offers perfect perspective of rookie QB Fernando Mendoza
· Yahoo Sports
Any player drafted with the number one overall pick carries the hopes of a franchise with them. That goes especially for a quarterback. Thus far it appears that Raiders top pick QB Fernando Mendoza has been handing that role with as much grace as you can hope for. That's the impression from outside the locker room anyway. And according to Raiders All Pro punter AJ Cole, inside it's no different.
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"I'm very impressed. I think he is just exactly what you see is what you get," Cole said of Mendoza. "It's kind of the funny thing of in the offseason when you're hanging out with people, friends, family, whatever, that's that's the question, right? Is like, 'Oh, what's Fernando [Mendoza] like? Oh, what's he like?' That's like the question I'm getting, I'm fielding every weekend, essentially, from whoever I'm hanging out with, and that's just the answer I keep telling people is whatever you think he's like, that's exactly what he's like. It's not a bit. It's not an act."
Plenty of quarterbacks know how to say the right things. And Mendoza is no different. Much of what he says to the media appears canned or even rehearsed. But it doesn't seem fake. It doesn't seem like it's put on. There is a difference. The Raiders have certainly had quarterbacks in the somewhat recent past who were polished in front of the media, but the veneer was thin and you could tell it wasn't genuine.
The funny thing is, Mendoza naturally gets long leash at this point because no kid at 22 years of age in the first few months on the job is expected to be able to be able to handle all the sudden responsibility with the maturity of an NFL franchise QB. But as Cole noted, Mendoza's approach has defied his age and experience and just what the veterans on this team want from him at this stage.
"He's extremely motivated, and I think that he's done a fantastic job of not coming in here with like too much on his shoulders, just saying, 'I want to be a great teammate. I want to help the team win. I want to learn. I want to do whatever I can.'" Cole continued. "And I think in any way that we can, coaches, teammates, friends, to take the pressure off of him, that's good, and he doesn't need to put the fate of the universe on his shoulders. We don't need him to be Superman. We just need him to be Fernando."
It's got to be refreshing for someone like Cole who is among the longest tenured Raiders and has seen several quarterbacks step behind center who may not have offered the same hopes for the future that Mendoza does.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders All Pro offers perfect perspective of rookie QB Fernando Mendoza