Seahawks face Raiders, top pick Fernando Mendoza next | Analysis

by · The Seattle Times

Fernando Mendoza, welcome to the NFL. Your first start is against the reigning Super Bowl champions.

The context around Sunday’s matchup between the Seahawks and Raiders changed dramatically on Tuesday before the NFL trade deadline when Las Vegas sent Kirk Cousins to Minnesota.

Instead of the storyline focused on Raiders coach Klint Kubiak facing the team he helped lead to a championship last season as the offensive coordinator, it’s Mendoza’s debut that will rightfully take the spotlight.

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It was a no-brainer for the Raiders to take Mendoza with the No. 1 overall pick in last April’s draft. He’s seen the field for one game so far when he came on in relief of a blowout loss to New England. He’s thrown eight NFL passes.

And now he gets the challenge of facing the Seahawks. It will be the fourth time the Seahawks will face a quarterback taken in the first-round in their first NFL start. The last one was Bo Nix with Denver in the season opener of the 2024 season. The others: Josh Rosen with Arizona in 2018 and Jay Cutler with Denver in 2006.

The Seahawks are 3-0 in those games.

The decision to trade Cousins puts a different spin on Kubiak’s first season in charge of the Raiders. After a 3-14 season last year under Pete Carroll, the Raiders have already topped that win total in the first half of Kubiak’s first season and sit at 4-5 going into Sunday’s game.

Kubiak started his career as a head coach 3-0 before hitting a rough stretch of the schedule that included last Sunday’s humbling loss to the 49ers.

When Kubiak was hired to be the offensive coordinator for the Seahawks before the start of last season, few could have guessed that he’d win a Super Bowl title and become one of the hottest head coaching candidates last offseason.

What happened last week?

For the first time since they moved from Oakland to Las Vegas, the Raiders returned to the Bay Area to face the 49ers. And aside from the 11 reported arrests for confrontations between fans, what happened on the field was a complete thumping by the Niners in a 38-17 victory. Jaden Dugger intercepted Kirk Cousins and returned the pick for a TD just 15 seconds into the third quarter to break the game open. The Raiders were held to a pathetic 24 yards rushing on 15 carries and Cousins was picked off three times. Las Vegas had five turnovers in the second half alone.

The loss was the fifth in six games for the Raiders, who still have three more games before reaching their bye.

Who to know

Mendoza will get all of the headlines and rightfully so this week. But like Las Vegas itself, the Raiders have some big-name attractions on their roster. Ashton Jeanty was a top-10 pick in the 2025 draft, but already has the look of a potential bust as his role seems to be diminishing under Kubiak in favor of Mike Washington Jr. The Seahawks get the task of trying to contain another elite tight end this week as Brock Bowers is often the majority of the Raiders offensive production. Bowers has 14 catches for 201 yards and three TDs in the past two games. Maxx Crosby remains one of the better defensive ends in the league, even after a contentious offseason that briefly saw him get traded to Baltimore.

Cousins had been playing at a high level as a 38-year-old placeholder until the franchise decided it was time for Mendoza to take over.

But beyond those notable names, there’s not much depth. Quay Walker is a solid linebacker and Jeremy Chinn is a decent safety on the defensive side. Cousins has thrown mostly to Bowers because his top wide receivers are Tre Tucker and Jalen Nailor.

Stat of note

The Seahawks’ Jaxon Smith-Njigba is the fifth player in the Super Bowl era with more than 1,000 yards receiving and at least nine touchdown catches in the first nine games of the season. The other four: Cooper Kupp (2021), Calvin Johnson (2013), Torey Holt (2003) and Jerry Rice (1990). Decent company.

Around the NFC West

Three thoughts from around the NFC West after Week 9:

— About a month ago, the Rams learned they wouldn’t have Davante Adams for a couple of months because of a hamstring injury. In the three games that followed, Puka Nacua had 33 catches on 41 targets for nearly 300 yards and three touchdowns as almost the entire of the Rams pass game went through Nacua.

The Rams are about to find out if they can survive without both of its top receivers. Nacua is headed for injured reserve with knee and toe injuries. It’s a brutal blow for the Rams considering how much Nacua is responsible for what they do on offense. The earliest Nacua can return is Week 15 against Dallas, a week before the first game against the Seahawks. But the four games Nacua are set to miss: at Arizona, Green Bay, Kansas City, at San Francisco.

— Think about the three best teams in the division and what is a common trait they all share? In the optimal scenario, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles all want to use a duo of running backs to find success in the run game. We talked last week in this space about the Rams situation, but it’s becoming clearer that San Francisco is wanting to do the same as well and take some of the stress off Christian McCaffrey. Kaelon Black had 11 carries for 70 yards on Sunday against the Raiders and had 63 yards and a TD two weeks ago against Atlanta.

Whether it’s McCaffrey and Black in the Bay, Kyren Williams and Blake Corum in L.A. or Zach Charbonnet and Jadarian Price in Seattle, all three teams seem to recognize the importance of having a duo of running backs that each bring something a little different to the field.

— The latest example of how football players are just wired differently: Arizona’s duo of wide receiver Michael Wilson and QB Gardner Minshew and what happened against the Seahawks. Wilson suffered a neck fracture on the fourth play of the game when he made an impressive, contested catch while blanketed by Devon Witherspoon. Wilson ended up playing 43 of 53 offensive snaps in the game and caught six passes for 60 yards, almost all of that with a busted neck. Minshew suffered what’s believed to be a torn UCL in his elbow getting hit while he threw late in the second quarter and played the entire second half. Wild.