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The Raiders have a future to develop. But Klint Kubiak still has games he intends to win.
And for now, the coach believes Kirk Cousins gives them their best chance.
Kubiak made that abundantly clear Monday, opening his weekly press conference by affirming Cousins remains the Raiders’ starting quarterback and dismissing the notion of a quarterback change.
“Kirk is our starting quarterback,” Kubiak said. “There is no controversy.”
Fernando Mendoza’s opportunity will come. It just won’t come this week.
The declaration settled the most pressing personnel question facing a team whose fourth consecutive loss Sunday against the Rams intensified calls to begin the next chapter at quarterback.
At 3-4, with their promising start giving way to familiar frustrations, the Raiders face an increasingly difficult balancing act: trying to salvage the season in front of them while preparing the quarterback expected to define the seasons ahead.
Kubiak’s decision makes clear which objective takes precedence this week.
Winning.
And with the beatable Jets up next on the schedule, and a chance to get back to even and potentially position themselves to make a postseason run over the final nine games, they will continue to ride things out with Cousins.
“Kirk’s playing really well, and we’re in the hunt,” Kubiak said. “It’ really important that we keep playing really well behind him and continue to develop Fernando.”
That means sticking with Cousins, whose experience and familiarity with the offense remain central to the argument for keeping him on the field, even as the results make that position harder to sell.
The Raiders used the first overall pick on Mendoza to change the trajectory of their franchise. Every week he watches is another week without the game experience that eventually must become part of his development.
But Kubiak’s position reflects a different calculation: The Raiders still have something to play for, and he is sticking with the veteran to pursue it.
That does not erase the questions surrounding an offense that continues to struggle in the red zone and coming out of halftime. Nor does it change the limitations that have fueled the conversation about whether Mendoza’s mobility and upside could provide a needed spark.
It does establish that Kubiak is not ready to make that move.
Yet.
“Eventually, Fernando is gonna play football,” said Kubiak. “We have a plan.”
Kubiak’s announcement also offered clarity after Sunday’s loss, when he acknowledged the Raiders needed to examine everything, including personnel and scheme, in trying to solve their mounting problems.
Quarterback was an obvious part of that discussion. By Monday, Kubiak had publicly drawn the line for the coming week.
The challenge now is making the commitment produce something beyond certainty about who takes the first snap.
Cousins cannot repair a defense that continues to surrender too much on the ground. A quarterback change would not automatically solve that problem, either. The Raiders’ losing streak stretches across enough areas that reducing it to one position misses the scope of the trouble.
Still, keeping Cousins ties the decision directly to the priority Kubiak has established.
If winning now is the reason to wait on Mendoza, the Raiders need to start delivering wins.
Otherwise, the argument for patience will become harder to sustain, and the future increasingly difficult to keep on the sideline.