- Klint Kubiak put Fernando Mendoza with the first-team offense against Houston’s starting defense in Tuesday’s joint practice.
- Mendoza went 10 of 16 for 97 yards and a touchdown in his preseason debut against Arizona.
- The Raiders have not said how many snaps Mendoza takes Thursday night at NRG Stadium.
- Las Vegas is +12500 to win the Super Bowl and +1500 to win the AFC West, the longest price in the division.
HOUSTON – Raiders coach Klint Kubiak ran rookie quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the first-team offense against the Houston Texans’ starting defense at Tuesday’s joint practice. Kubiak said the plan was set in advance, two days before Mendoza’s second preseason game at NRG Stadium.
The First-Team Look Was Planned, Interception Included
“I wanted to see him going against the Texans’ ones. That was our plan all along. I thought he did some good things,” Kubiak said after Tuesday’s session in Houston.
The scheduling is the news. Mendoza had taken first-team snaps once before in camp, on Aug. 8, and only because Kirk Cousins was held out of team periods as discipline for a practice fight. Tuesday was the first time those reps were planned rather than inherited, and the first time they came against another team’s starters.
The session was not clean. Mendoza threw a red-zone interception to Texans safety Jalen Pitre, who returned it for a touchdown, on a throw intended for running back Ashton Jeanty. He also hit tight end Brock Bowers down the left sideline and found Deven Thompkins for a big gain. Kubiak said Mendoza had a good practice overall and called the turnover a lesson.
Cousins Played One Series, Mendoza Played Four
In the Aug. 13 preseason opener, a 27-14 home loss to the Arizona Cardinals, Cousins played a single series and went 5 of 6 for 50 yards with a 13-yard touchdown to Michael Mayer. Mendoza then took four possessions, not counting a kneel-down to close the half, and finished 10 of 16 for 97 yards with a 6-yard touchdown to Jack Bech.
Read the line rather than the highlight. Ten completions on 16 attempts is 62.5 percent, and 97 yards on those attempts is 6.1 yards per attempt, below the roughly 7.0 the league averages. That is a short-area, high-percentage profile, which is both what a rookie sees on his first NFL night and what a Kubiak offense asks for before it asks for anything downfield. One game is not a sample. It is a first data point, and it is the only one on file.
Kubiak’s own read after the Arizona game was about process rather than production. “He was very calm. He was getting the calls in. He was seeing coverage well. I liked the way that he moved in the pocket, got outside and extended some plays,” Kubiak said.
No Snap Count Announced, And A Thin Preseason Board
The Raiders have not said how much Mendoza plays Thursday. Kubiak declined to set playing time for the starters when asked ahead of the trip, and no coach or coordinator has attached a number to the rookie’s workload. Anything beyond that is projection.
The board reflects that. What is priced is the game itself: Las Vegas is a 2-point underdog at +110 on the moneyline, with the total at 40.5. That is a number built on rotations, not on starters. When no coach will commit to who plays and for how long, legal NFL betting markets stay thin, which is what makes August the quietest stretch of the year.
Where Las Vegas is actually priced is the futures board. The Raiders are +12500 to win the Super Bowl and +1500 to win the AFC West, the longest of the four prices in the division, with Kansas City at +180, the Los Angeles Chargers at +185 and Denver at +225. That +1500 implies about 6 percent, which is what the payout assumes rather than what the season owes them.
Those numbers are priced on a Cousins-led roster. Kubiak named Cousins his starter when camp opened in late July and has said nothing since to change it. The Raiders also play in the oldest regulated market in the country, and Nevada sports betting counters will hang the team’s numbers all season, but a preseason quarterback rotation is not something a book prices.
For the same reason, a rookie taking reps with the ones in August is a development story, not a market event. What moves a futures price across legal sports betting is a change at the top of the depth chart, and Tuesday was not one.
Houston Thursday, Then San Francisco To Close Preseason
ESPN carries the 8 p.m. ET kickoff Thursday at NRG Stadium, the second of three preseason games for Las Vegas. The Raiders close the exhibition schedule Aug. 27 at home against the San Francisco 49ers.
