All eyes were on Fernando Mendoza on Monday as he warmed up on the field and prepared to lead the Indiana Hoosiers into the College Football Playoff national championship game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. But there was one group in the building whose stakes in watching Mendoza were a bit higher than most.
Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis and general manager John Spytek were spotted on the sideline by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, presumably to get one more in-game look at the projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft (as predicted in USA TODAY’s latest mock draft). The Raiders, who finished the season with the worst record in the league at 4-13, hold that pick.
To remove any ambiguity that might have remained as to why they were there, minority owner Tom Brady was later seen standing alongside Davis and Spytek donning a silver hoodie with ‘Raiders’ printed in bold letters across his chest.
As explained in USA TODAY’s latest mock draft, Mendoza has virtually no competition for the top spot in the draft, even less so now that Oregon quarterback Dante Moore decided to stay in school for another year. The Raiders have been in dire need of a signal caller ever since parting ways with Derek Carr at the end of the 2022 season, so it seems all but inevitable that Mendoza will be getting a call from the Las Vegas brass this spring.
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