Fernando Mendoza: Thursday night taught me there’s a lot more learning to do

Fernando Mendoza finished the 2025 season on top of the college football world as the Heisman-winning quarterback of Indiana’s national championship team, but it hasn’t taken him long to figure out that the NFL is a very different beast.

Mendoza started Thursday night’s preseason game against the Texans and saw his third pass of the game get intercepted for an 80-yard touchdown by Houston linebacker Wade Woodaz. Mendoza, who would finish his night 8-of-15 for 86 yards, said after the game that “it was not a good throw” to fullback Connor Heyward and that it taught a lesson about how “one tiny mistake can lead to catastrophe.”

“I came away with that there’s a lot more learning to do, and that although maybe you had a lot of success at another level, this level is a whole step further,” Mendoza said, via Sam Warren of TheAthletic.com.

There was an inevitable learning curve for Mendoza to tackle upon entering the NFL and Thursday night showed that he’s still at the start of that process. The next big question for the Raiders is how long it will be before he continues it in the starting lineup during meaningful games.