Raiders take Mendoza No.1
- What happened: the 2026 NFL Draft opened with a franchise quarterback selected at the top. - The key specific: the Las Vegas Raiders chose Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick. - Context/reaction: teams and analysts framed the pick as the Raiders' clear quarterback swing to restart a rebuild ( ).
The Raiders opened the 2026 National Football League draft by taking Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick on Thursday night in Pittsburgh. (nfl.com) Round 1 began April 23 at 8 p.m. Eastern in Pittsburgh, and Las Vegas used the first pick on a 6-foot-5 passer who had been widely projected to go first. NBC Philadelphia’s live tracker called the selection “expected” as it came in. (operations.nfl.com, nbcphiladelphia.com) Mendoza entered the draft after a 2025 season at Indiana in which he completed 72.0% of his passes for 3,535 yards, 41 touchdowns and six interceptions. Raiders.com said he also won the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Award and the College Football Playoff National Championship Game offensive Most Valuable Player award. (espn.com, raiders.com) The pick gives Las Vegas a quarterback reset after a 3-14 season left the club with the top selection. NFL.com said the Raiders had not held the No. 1 overall pick since 2007. (nbcphiladelphia.com, nfl.com) That reset had already started before draft night. The Raiders fired coach Pete Carroll in January after his first season in Las Vegas, and NBC Philadelphia reported before the draft that Mendoza “could be headed to the Raiders with the No. 1 pick.” (nfl.com, nbcphiladelphia.com) Mendoza’s rise was steep even before Thursday. Indiana’s official bio says he transferred from California, started 35 games in college and became the first Heisman Trophy winner in school history. (iuhoosiers.com) The pre-draft conversation centered on whether Las Vegas would use the pick on a quarterback at all, and by Thursday that question was gone. NBC Philadelphia wrote this week that Mendoza could join the short list of Heisman winners to also go No. 1 overall, and the Raiders made that official a few days later. (nbcphiladelphia.com, nfl.com) The draft runs through April 25 with 257 picks over seven rounds, but the first choice fixed the opening image of this class: Las Vegas betting its rebuild on Fernando Mendoza. (operations.nfl.com, nfl.com)
