Vikings trade for Kirk Cousins opens door for Fernando Mendoza

Fernando Mendoza spent the first nine games of his NFL career one play away from taking over the Raiders. Turns out, all it took was a phone call from Minnesota.

The Raiders are finalizing a trade for Kirk Cousins to the Vikings on Tuesday for a third-round pick, sending the veteran quarterback back to a place he knows well and giving the kid who spent half a season looking over his shoulder a reason to look straight ahead.

Mendoza is expected to make his first NFL start on Sunday against Seattle.

And for the first time since the Raiders made Mendoza the first pick in the draft, the question about Sunday is one he gets to answer himself.

What can he do?

Give Cousins his due here. The Raiders asked him to come to Las Vegas, help a first-year head coach get his offense off the ground and show a young quarterback how to do a job Cousins knew he’d eventually have to give up. There are easier ways to make a living, especially for a man who still believes he can play.

And for nine games, Cousins made a pretty good case that he can. He helped the Raiders win their first three, brought them back from 11 down in New Orleans and had them within a field goal of the Chiefs and Bills. Two Sundays ago, there he was on the plane ride home from beating the Jets, the chains back around his neck, celebrating with teammates who seemed every bit as happy for him as he was for them.

For all the time everyone outside the building spent wondering when the Raiders would turn to Mendoza, the guys inside it had a season to play. Cousins gave them a chance to enjoy some of it.

He also played well enough to give general manager John Spytek a choice at the trade deadline. More importantly, he opened plenty of eyes around the NFL by establishing himself again as a top quarterback.

Which is why the quarterback-starved Vikings came calling. The Vikings; defense is the NFL’s best. Super Bowl worthy. They just needed a quarterback to make the whole thing work. Cousins is that quarterback.

And if you’re wondering how the Raiders could move their starting quarterback at 4-5, with a playoff spot still within reach, turn the question around.

How much longer could they justify asking Mendoza to watch?

The Raiders have beaten the teams they should beat, a welcome development for a franchise that spent years making even that an adventure. They’ve also lost five of six. They can’t count on their running game to get them a yard when they need one. Their defense has given up at least 30 points in six straight games. You could leave Cousins in the lineup all the way through January and still spend next spring trying to fix every one of those problems.

Except now you’d have one more. After a full year in the building, the most important player on your roster would still be waiting to take his first meaningful NFL snap.

Mendoza got plenty out of those nine weeks. He got to see how Cousins prepared for a defense on Wednesday and what happened on Sunday when a safety had the nerve to line up somewhere else. He got to watch Cousins handle a three-game winning streak and, perhaps more instructively given the recent history of this franchise, a four-game losing streak.

What Cousins couldn’t show him is how fast that safety closes when it’s Mendoza’s throw hanging in the air. For that, the kid needs the ball.

So does Klint Kubiak, in a sense. The Raiders hired him in part to develop a quarterback. Now he gets to find out which throws Mendoza trusts on third down, how much he can handle at the line of scrimmage and what call gets him settled after he sails one over Brock Bowers’ head. Somewhere in those answers is the offense Kubiak will take into next season. He has eight games to start building it.

There’s a fair deal in that for the people paying to watch, too. Nobody has to talk themselves into a graceful eight-week exit from the playoff race. The Raiders are a game under .500. Mendoza won a national championship. Good luck explaining to him that the competitive portion of the schedule ended the day he got the job.

Besides, if the Raiders put together a run with their rookie quarterback, imagine what that would mean. And if he takes some lumps along the way, better he gets a chance to do something about them the following Sunday.

For nine weeks, Mendoza’s best resource was the veteran sitting beside him. On Sunday against Seattle, he’ll come off the field after his first series, pull up a seat next to Kubiak and look at the pictures.

This time, he gets to tell his coach what he saw.