Tom Krasovic: 'Fernandomania' awaits Raiders if they can just keep losing

Tom Krasovic, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Dec 16, 2025

Published in Football

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Tom Brady knew his Las Vegas Raiders gig could be bad, but even Brady may not have foreseen how ugly his full NFL season as a limited partner would be.

The Raiders are so bad, the pirate on their helmet logo has donned a second eye patch.

Brady doesn’t have the luxury of shielding his eyes.

He’s required to bone up on the team’s NFL-worst offense and Grade-D defense and counsel Mark Davis, Pete Carroll and John Spytak — the Raiders’ controlling owner, head coach and general manager, respectively.

As a result, the dysfunctional Raiders have become interesting, as compared to their other bad seasons.

Regarding the team’s final three games, there’s a large decision to be made.

Should the top strategists put a thumb on the scale, improving the odds their team, now 2-12, loses out and thus gets the first pick of the draft?

Brady no doubt would spit fire at that question.

Seven-time Super Bowl champions don’t regard tank as a verb.

But losing would become winning if the Raiders can select a build-around quarterback in the next draft.

My presumption here is distasteful, even disgusting.

But Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champ, must do what he can to nudge the Raiders toward three more defeats.

Because if they lose, lose, lose, the Raiders are certain to get any quarterback on their board.

No QB in the next draft class appears as talented as AFC star QBs Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson — or even C.J. Stroud or Trevor Lawrence.

Still, Fernando Mendoza is worth pursuing.

At 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds, polished at back-shoulder throws, run-pass-options reads and keep-them-honest pulldown runs, the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner from Indiana seems a slightly more agile and larger version of Jared Goff when Goff went first overall out of Cal.

Mendoza earns high marks for footwork, ball-protection fundamentals and decision-making. He’s better in those areas than Sam Darnold when the USC star went third overall to the Jets. Darnold, after bouncing around, has evolved into an average-or-better NFL starter the past two years.

Mendoza would be the Rauders’ most promising young QB in several years, perhaps decades. Oregon’s Dante Moore, 20, would also be an interesting candidate if he decides to come out early.

Brady could decide that, without any nudges from strategists, the Raiders will lose out.

They’ll face the Texans (9-5), the Giants (2-14) and the Chiefs (6-8). The Raiders, after all, are an especially bad 2-14 club. Only the Titans (2-14) have a point differential near their minus-167. Just last Sunday, in their 31-0 loss to the Eagles, the Raiders averaged 1.8 yards per offensive play. Somehow, they had just 29 passing yards.

Brady himself, at 48, might have been an upgrade.

“The only good thing that happened, we didn’t have anybody hurt today,” Carroll said.

Brady nevertheless shouldn’t let the wretchedness lull him into complacency. Suggest more playing time for raw players. Give cover to banged-up veterans who are under contract for next year, saying they can shut it down now.

(Keep in mind, players themselves do not tank. One, it increases injury risk. Two, it harms their employability.)

The Giants ought to scare Brady. They have lost eight straight games. They stink at tackling. The Raiders could beat the Giants without it being a surprise. How rich would that be? The Giants dealt Brady two of his three Super Bowls defeats.

A win over the Giants would count as a loss, dropping the Raiders in the draft line.

Goodbye, Fernando.

Here I am, counseling the GOAT to embrace losing because franchise QBs are that valuable.

Maybe I shouldn’t wish Raiderdom on any QB, especially one as likeable as Mendoza. Last week, he asked a reporter not to use a slang word that denotes a profanity — the same profanity popularized by the Padres’ “LFGSD” chant. He even suggested an alternative.

As for the Heisman hoopla, Mendoza called it fun but also over the top.

“After this,” the Miami native told reporters and well-wishers, “I’m going to need a lot of humbling.”

If he does go first to the Raiders, Mendoza won’t have to worry about becoming swell-headed. The Raiders’ game film, relative to the competition, is far scarier than anything he saw from Indiana after he transferred from Cal last December.

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