Charles Davis: How Fernando Mendoza Will Win Over the Raiders' Locker Room

Charles Davis does not hedge. How real is Fernando Mendoza? Is he that franchise-changing, culture-changing first overall pick everybody hopes a first overall pick is? Oh yeah, Davis says. 2026 draft, no ifs, ands or buts as far as he is concerned. The talent is obvious, otherwise the conversation does not happen. But the rest of the package is what gets him to the top.

Davis tells a story to make the case. A general manager once told him, when Davis asked why a particular player went where he went, I had to have an adult in the room. I needed an adult in the room. That is what the Raiders are getting. A young man walking into the locker room and assimilating. Davis read a great article on Mendoza recently. Everyone has clocked the polish in his interviews, sometimes so polished people wonder if it is real. The article reframed it. Mendoza handles interviews that way because he does not want to hurt his team or his teammates. He is putting on the right front for whoever he is representing. Then he gets back to the locker room, the guys bust on him, and he cuts right up with them. They think he fits. They think he is real. Plus the toughness, Davis keeps coming back to it. Off the charts.

Rich runs a parallel. He invokes a phrase he uses with his kids and on the show. Truth is a total defense. The memoir title of his late friend Steven Bochco. With Mendoza, his genuineness is the defense for the question of whether he is the real thing as a person, as an adult in the room. (Rich and Charles take a brief detour into Cop Rock and the courage of a Bochco big swing, then come back to the point.)

Davis turns to the Raiders specifically. Imagine sitting there with Mendoza and Kirk Cousins as your top two. You do not worry about a presser. You do not get the two-in-the-morning phone call. You are covered. Cousins does not have a mean bone in his body. He is going to mentor this young man and do the right thing no matter what.

Last thing on Mendoza, Davis says, all the noise about where he would have gone in 2025 or 2027 or 2019 is just noise. It is the 2026 draft. He is going where he is supposed to go. Number one. To a team hitting the reset button for the 187th time. Rich did not think Charles was exaggerating, in fact thought he was a little light.

Rich closes with the Mendoza moment from Monday's show. The kid explained why he would not be in Green Bay for the draft, family, mom, the plane ride, only ten passes. Then said he looked forward to being a good league partner. Happy to have as many ESPN cameras as they want. Rich's knee-jerk was, what about NFL Network. Then he remembered. We are one and the same now. The Raiders are getting a milk drinker. Grounded. That is the whole point.