Raiders GM on Drafting Mendoza

Raiders GM John Spytek walked into the Rich Eisen Show days before the draft with the first overall pick in hand and a board he said was mostly set.

Rich opened with a Michigan callback. Spytek was a freshman on campus in the fall of 1999 when Tom Brady was a senior. His first memory of Brady is a Christmas Eve dinner before the Orange Bowl in Miami, Brady sitting with the freshmen away from home to keep them sane. Backus and Hutchinson he remembers more vividly, mostly from scout-team beatings. He told his 19-year-old self to stop being hard about it, that one of them would end up in the Hall of Fame.

Rich asked if Spytek was ready to break the pick on the show. Spytek laughed it off. The answer would come in 72 hours. The board was mostly set. Ownership meetings were coming. Mark Davis and Tom Brady and the group would play devil's advocate, run scenarios, make sure they were aligned when the Raiders went on the clock. Spytek called Brady a sounding board going back to their Tampa reunion in 2020. He mentioned Mike Feldman and the rest of the front-office brain trust.

On Fernando Mendoza, Spytek was specific. Multiple touch points over two to three months starting at the combine. Impressive young man. Raised right. Loves football. High football IQ. Works hard. Spytek singled out the pro day, where Mendoza ran the show and used it to spotlight his teammates. Humility despite months of accolades.

Spytek leaned on Bo Schembechler's line, the team the team the team, as the culture he and Brady are building. Toughness is the other word he used. In the Big Ten championship game and the national championship game, Mendoza took shots and kept playing, lip bloodied, willing to do whatever it takes. Spytek referenced Mendoza's own line, I'd die on the field, then added the dry caveat that dying on the field is not what they are looking for.

Rich floated the professional challenge ahead of him. Saying Ohio State four times in the first ten picks. Spytek laughed.

On trade calls, Spytek said the phone has been quiet since his press conference last week. He has let the relevant teams know where they stand. Options have value. The Raiders are open. But the last several days have been calm.

The GM said everything a GM says the Monday before a draft. Which is to say, almost nothing. And plenty.