Mendoza projected No.1
- Final mock drafts project Fernando Mendoza going No.1 overall to the Las Vegas Raiders. - Draft analysts expect multiple Round 1 trades, with teams like the Eagles and Saints eyeing moves up. - Coverage from NFL.com and OutKick highlights heavy trade expectation once the Jets hold the No.2 pick. (nfl.com, foxnews.com)
Fernando Mendoza is projected to go first overall to the Las Vegas Raiders, and most of the uncertainty in Thursday’s National Football League draft starts with the next pick. (nfl.com) NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah’s final mock draft, published April 23, puts Mendoza at No. 1 and forecasts four Round 1 trades. He has the Philadelphia Eagles moving from No. 29 to No. 22 and the New Orleans Saints jumping from No. 8 to No. 4. (nfl.com) Fox News, citing OutKick coverage on April 23, said “the real intrigue begins” after the Raiders’ opening pick and pointed to the New York Jets at No. 2 as the spot where trade rumors could accelerate. OutKick’s own updated mock draft from last week also projected multiple first-round trades. (foxnews.com, outkick.com) The draft begins Thursday, April 23, at 8 p.m. Eastern in Pittsburgh, with Rounds 2 and 3 on Friday and Rounds 4 through 7 on Saturday. The Raiders hold Pick 1, the Jets hold Pick 2, and the current order runs through 32 first-round selections. (nfl.com, nfl.com) That setup has concentrated attention on the top of the board because this class has a clearer favorite at quarterback than it does a settled order behind him. Jeremiah wrote that there is “uncertainty once we get beyond the first overall pick this year,” which is why his final projection leaned heavily on swaps. (nfl.com) Jeremiah has kept Mendoza at No. 1 throughout mock draft season. In his first mock on January 26, he already had the Raiders taking a quarterback at the top, and by his final version on April 23 he still had Mendoza in that spot. (nfl.com, nfl.com) The Raiders’ need at the position has been public for weeks. NFL.com’s team-needs rundown listed quarterback first for Las Vegas and said the club’s biggest needs entering the draft were quarterback, wide receiver, offensive line, defensive line and cornerback. (nfl.com) Trade-heavy mocks are not limited to one outlet. Chad Reuter at NFL.com projected four first-round trades in a March mock, Chris Simms at NBC Sports published a final mock with multiple Round 1 deals on April 20, and other national outlets have modeled even more aggressive movement. (nfl.com, nbcsports.com, cbssports.com) Not every analyst agrees on who moves or how far, and mock drafts are projections rather than team announcements. But across the final pre-draft boards, the same shape keeps appearing: Mendoza first to Las Vegas, then a long night of teams trying to buy their way into the next tier. (nfl.com, foxnews.com, nbcsports.com)
