No QB controversy: Kubiak backs Kirk Cousins as starter

Standing at a crossroads in their 2026 season, the Las Vegas Raiders are beginning to hear the conversations surrounding their future.

After suffering their fourth straight loss at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak was open to making any changes necessary to turn the season around.

“I think, at this point, we’re thinking about everything,” admitted Kubiak at Sunday’s postgame press conference.

Some of the immediate post-game discourse included whether or not Fernando Mendoza would get starts at quarterback in place of Kirk Cousins, and the signs have been there to justify such theories.

In the blowout loss to the New England Patriots in Week Five, Mendoza played the final series of the game and looked solid, completing six of his eight passes for 48 yards. There was also a sequence against the Rams where it looked like Mendoza was warming up to take over, but it turned out to be a false alarm as Cousins finished out the game.

However, Kubiak started his Monday press conference early by backing Cousins, indicating that he will be the starting quarterback against the New York Jets on Sunday.

“Kirk is our starting quarterback. There is no controversy there,” Kubiak stated. “He is playing at a very high level, and we got to continue to do that in order to win.”

In fairness, the quarterback position is pretty far down the list of the issues plaguing the Raiders right now.

Cousins may have struggled in the first half against the Rams, but he has been largely solid outside of that. In seven games, Cousins has thrown for 1,877 yards and an NFL-leading 16 touchdowns.

However, this is also a role that Cousins has played before. It happened with the Atlanta Falcons when Cousins was keeping the seat warm for Michael Penix Jr. and, while a similar result has not yet played out with Mendoza, the veteran is perfectly aware of the situation at hand.

“Nothing changes in the sense that, if I’m not the best option, then I don’t want to be out there either,” Cousins admitted in his postgame presser. 

“I want our football team to have the best chance to win games and, in the first OTA if that had become apparent, I would have been the first one to say “Yeah, you can’t play me.””

However, Mendoza is not a silver bullet solution to the Raiders’ woes, and it would be unfair to treat him as such.

Going from one quarterback to another will not solve the woes on the other side of the ball, which has given up at least 30 points in the last four games. It will not solve a running game that has struggled to find its footing, especially with Ashton Jeanty languishing to 1.7 yards per carry against the Rams.

If Mendoza is going to be successful at the NFL level, the impetus falls on the coaching staff to tailor their scheme to cater to his strengths, as the Raiders have seen firsthand against teams like the Los Angeles Chargers and New Orleans Saints exactly what happens when the quarterback is forced to win games on his own.

“We got to play better team football,” said Kubiak about what the Raiders need to improve. “It starts with stopping the run and it starts with running the ball.”

All of this is without mentioning that, although the Jets may have had the makings of a soft landing for Mendoza on paper, they also boast a defense that ranks fifth in the NFL for passing yards given up, surrendering only 187.7 yards per game.

Kubiak has indicated that the Raiders do have a plan with Mendoza, but it has become abundantly clear that the change is not happening just yet.