Best Of - Fernando Mendoza & Ty Simpson DEBUTS, Jalen Hurts CONCERNS? Texans HELD BACK by Stroud?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Welcome to the best of the week for What's Wright? with Nick Wright. The best takes and moments from this week on the show. Enjoy.

**Ty Butler** (0:09)
Number one pick, Fernando Mendoza, 10 for 16, 97 yards, a touchdown. He did take a sack. And so, Damon, your guy, Fernando Mendoza, what should fans expect this season from him? And also just recap what you saw this past weekend.

**Damon Bruce** (0:28)
They should expect nothing short of miracles. He's already done the football equivalent of walking on water, turning water into wine. This man made me happy on a Saturday for the first time in my life. I went to Indiana University. I am an IU alumni and I've known nothing but pain and suffering on every single Saturday before Cignetti came to town and changed everything. And if you don't mind me saying, there were two Indiana quarterbacks playing preseason football this past week with Curtis Rourke playing for the 49ers. He is, you know, a year removed from his rookie year. He was hurt. But it was just crazy to see two Indiana quarterbacks in the NFL actually playing well. May we all live in interesting times. I am personally ready to have Fernando Mendoza's baby, if he asked me to have it. Like, I love the guy. I am completely biased. I will tell you that what Raider fans can expect is just one of the most hardworking, dedicated to the craft, never going to go out and get in trouble on the strip.
He's just, he's almost too good to be true boy scouting. And I don't know when it happened because my wife went to Cal. So I watched a lot of Mendoza at Cal. And when he transferred to Indiana, I thought, oh, good. But I didn't think, oh, Heisman, undefeated national title. So he's done the impossible for me. And if you can win at Indiana, as far as I'm concerned, you might even be able to be the guy who can turn the Raiders around, who have been lost in the woods for decades. And the move to Vegas did not exactly reboot the greatness of the Raiders. As a matter of fact, they've experienced some of their worst seasons ever since reaching Las Vegas.
I think Mendoza, again, as we were talking about situations matter, he's in a good situation behind a veteran quarterback. He's in a great situation. I think with a very good first-year head coach who's going to get an awful lot out of him. And then to have Tom Brady be the entire, you know, consigliere of the team, and he can just go to Brady with any and all concerns. Mendoza is set up, I believe, to do well. And I thought he was impressive. He made those tight window throws, which sort of defined his Heisman campaign.
He is a less is more quarterback. He doesn't need to put the ball in the air 38 times in a game to be incredibly effective and dangerous.
You know, his mobility obviously is something he's got. You know, like, look, don't take those hits. You got to figure out a way to keep yourself healthy. We'll get to Jackson Dart in a little bit. But, you know, I'm excited for Mendoza. Having said all that, it is a rebuilding Raiders year. It's hard to see them at more than seven wins in any scenario. But I think it will hopefully be a year where he proves the franchise pointed in the right direction.

**Ty Butler** (3:21)
All right. So the last six quarterbacks to go number one overall were all week one starters. Last one that wasn't was Baker Mayfield. And just to find like a comp, I was like, all right, how about Baker's rookie year? Now, we obviously don't know how many games Mendoza is going to play. Baker that year started 13 And I remember him making his debut because it came against my team on Thursday night football and the Jets knocked Tyrod out of the game.
But 27 touchdowns, 14 interceptions.
Obviously, this is dependent on how many games he actually plays. Do you feel like this is a fair expectation for him to hover around that touchdown interception ratio?

**Damon Bruce** (4:06)
I think that that's probably a little bit too much. I mean, I don't like the Raiders receiving core right now. I don't know if he's got the talent around him. I'm glad that they started protecting him with a very highly paid center in Linderbaum. I mean, that offensive line has got to get right. There's a lot that the Raiders need before we can say all systems are really go for Mendoza to have a big year. I think that it's hard to say, man, the Browns were a lot better. It's a weird way to start any sentence. But I think the Browns team that Baker Mayfield came into might have had more weapons than Mendoza has to play with outside of Brock Bowers, maybe Genty, we'll see.