Up to this point, it looked like Fernando Mendoza was having a pretty smooth transition to the NFL game. The number one overall pick throws a great ball and wasn’t making a whole lot of mistakes you’d typically expect from a rookie, especially one with so little experience taking snaps from under center.
That smooth transition hit a few bumps in the road Sunday. Day four of Raiders camp was a rough one for Mendoza.
First it showed in some indecisiveness. He scanned the field far too long before getting pressure that would have been a sack had the defenders been allowed to make contact with him.
A bit later, he threw a deep ball over the middle and it hung in the air way too long and was swatted down pretty easily. He was actually lucky it wasn’t picked off.
He wouldn’t escape the takeaway for long, though. Late in practice, he threw a short pass on a slant and slot corner Greedy Vance read him like a book. Vance broke on the ball as it left Mendoza’s hand and picked it clean, easily racing across open field for a pick six.
It was a second-year former undrafted cornerback giving Mendoza a fine ‘welcome to the NFL’ moment.
Days like this can happen. And probably should happen. It’s all part of the learning process. One Mendoza admits he still has much left to do. That showed up today for sure.
