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Number one overall pick Fernando Mendoza took the field for the first time in his NFL career. Gave Raiders fans a lot to be excited about. We can tell you that. Mendoza was 10 for 16 for 96 yards. Threw a touchdown pass to Jack Bash. Mendoza backed up Kurt Cousins who led a touchdown drive on his opening series. On the other side of the ball, third overall pick Jeremiah Love made his preseason debut after sitting out the Hall of Fame game. He carried the ball 11 times for 58 yards. Also had three catches. Love did not play the second half, however, after suffering what head coach Michael Lafleur called a minor
ankle injury. No, Carson Beck for Arizona Thursday. He sat out with a rib injury and Gardenner Mchu took advantage of his reps after starter Jacobe Brassette went five for five with a touchdown pass. Mchu led three scoring drives, finishing 14 for 16, 101 yards, and two touchdowns. Time now to welcome in CBS Sports NFL analyst and draft expert Ryan Wilson. Ryan, great to have you with us as always. You've spent the past few months pouring over this incoming class. So, that's where we start. The most anticipated start tonight, Fernando Mendoza under center for the Raiders.
What did you think of his performance? Hey, Lindsay, good to see you. Uh, it was good, right? The funny thing is Lindsay, if we went back last week to the Hall of Fame game, Carson Beck played like he was a Grizzle veteran in that game. And maybe Fernando wasn't quite that good, but he was efficient. The ball came in on time. He did take a couple hits. You don't like to see that, but he made some good throws, especially in the middle of the field. You talk about the touchdown to Jack Bes on a quick little slant there. So, look, reasons for optimism. We know that Kirk Cousins is going to start the season. They're not going to rush Fernando out there. Uh he's going to
have an opportunity to play a lot more in the preseason. And I would imagine perhaps by Halloween or so, maybe Thanksgiving at the latest, we'll see Fernando in there full time. But it's a good start. And the thing I keep coming back to and have to remind myself probably more than anyone is that the preseason debuts for rookies do not matter. You can go back and Kenny Picket absolutely balled out and you can go back and CJ Stra absolutely flopped. Uh those quarterbacks careers have thus gone in different directions. So, uh good first start. Uh something to work with. Um room for improvement. So yeah, I'm I'm happy with the way Fernando played and we saw a lot of the things
tonight and glimpses that we saw at Indiana in that national championship run. And you think we could see Mendoza that quick as you just said? I do think so. First overall picks don't usually sit on the bench for more than a month or six weeks. This situation's different unlike say Brian Dable last year or Jackson Dart, the 25th overall pick. Brian Dable was coaching for his job. Jackson Dart got in there quicker probably than most people. He ended up being the right decision. Clint Kubak's not going to lose his job in year one, I don't think. I mean, they did it with Pete Carroll, but this feels a little
different in terms of what John Spitech and Tom Brady uh are going to do there. But I think you want to see what you have and Fernando Mendoza is the future. You took him first overall and I think you're going to see that sooner rather than later. And look, knock on wood, Kurt Cousins stays healthy for the rest of his NFL career, but it he has struggled with injuries uh in recent years, so there's also that to consider. All right, on the flip side, Cardinals rookie third pick, Jeremiah Love, getting his first action. What was your takeaway there, man? He is explosive. Uh, my first takeaway was he looks a lot like he did
at Notre Dame and this is going to make life easy for whoever the quarterback is. Jacobe Brson Beck should he win the job. Garter Mchu. Uh, the other thing I kept saying to myself, Lindsay, is man, why is he still in there touching the ball 14 times? Uh, so it's like get him out of there. But we saw the explosivity and I'll just say this. Um again, third overall pick. You go 119 picks later, Mike Washington Jr. on the other side. Uh he actually played just as well. And it just goes to show you that there's so many good football players out there. And the preseason can sometimes be a little bit misleading, but good starts for a bunch of young running backs. But
Jeremiah Love obviously had to focus on him. Um if you're asking, I would not play him again this preseason. We'll see uh how the Cardinals feel about that. Protect him. Right, Ryan? Biggest winner on the night. What would you say? Uh yeah. So, let's go outside of this game. This was the main attraction. Let's go to Pittsburgh where it was a Aaron Rogers reunion of sorts, Mike McCarthy reunion of sorts with the Green Bay Steelers game, but Jerry Bernard, their third, their second round pick, excuse me, had four catches and he did
it with the first team adjacent. Mason Rudolph started, Aaron Rogers didn't. But there have been some concerns in training camp Lindsay about him coming along as quickly as perhaps they wanted him to. You see there blast from the past Robert Tany with 61 yards. Uh and Kaden waging the other rookie had 79 yards with the second and third team. But I think Jeremy Bernard's really making his case what we saw tonight to get on the field as a number three. He's battling Roman Wilson right now. We know they have DK Metaf. We know they have Michael Pitman Jr. Good first start for him. And if you can get Aaron Rogers on his side, that's even better news because we know how Aaron is hard on rookies. Uh, and if Jeremy's where
he's supposed to be in terms of running those routes, he will be on the field sooner rather than later. All right. So, that was biggest winner, biggest loser. We're so mean. What would you say? I know. Like, as a parent of two kids, I don't like to come down on these young men. So, I took the easy way out. I said the Raiders pass defense because they got absolutely destroyed. You sort of talked about some of the stats there. Jacobe Brassette just got off his couch and signed that deal. He went five for five. Gardner Mincchi was playing like it was back at Washington State with Mike Leech.
14 of 16. You can see here. And then Kaden Slovis came in. He played well last week as well. Finished seven for nine. Do the math. That's 87% completion percentage. 220 yards, three touchdowns, no turnovers. Again, I understand we're playing vanilla defense. It's not all the first teams are out there. No Max Crosby. I get all that. But I would like to see a little bit more than what we saw there. If you do want a name, you didn't ask. I'll give you one. Uh Cam Ward didn't play great for the against the 49ers. Um not the end of the world. New D off offensive coordinator, excuse me, Brian Dable. I expect him to bounce back, but not an awesome showing uh in uh game one, preseason game one with a new head
coach and a new offensive coordinator. All right, I like your approach there. I like what you did. Thanks so much, Ryan. Let's take a look now at the preseason schedule for Friday. Hey, we got three games on the slate, including Tua Tonga Valoa's Falcons debut. Tua's former team, the Dolphins, will give their new QB Malik Willis some reps against the Commanders.
