COUSINS TRADED TO VIKINGS, MENDOZA TO START THIS WEEK!

I'm surprised, not shocked, but boys and girls, if you have been living under a rock, the future is now. Tom Pelissero, not 10 minutes ago, at the buzzer of the trade deadline. Blockbuster, the Raiders are trading four-time Pro Bowler Kirk Cousins to the Vikings for their 2027 third-round pick. Cousins returns to Minnesota while Las Vegas turns Fernando Mendoza. As I'm reading this out loud, I am stunned by it. They really did this. They found a way to get a third round pick. Could be another Trey Zune, right? For Kirk Cousins, a 38-year-old quarterback. And they are now handing the keys of the car, the keys of the castle, to Mendoza to face the Seahawks and the Broncos on back-to-back weeks. They don't care. Who the opponent is, they're ready to see this kid play. I'm ready to see this kid play. The future is now. A disappointing loss for the Raiders. No two ways around it. They could have easily scored 14 to 21 more points in that 49er game. And now the Raiders stay in the NFC West to take on the defending Super Bowl champions who are reeling. People talk about the Super Bowl hangover for the loser of the Super Bowl. How about the winner of the Super Bowl? Because right now... The Seahawks are without Sam Darnold and Drew Locke, I believe, is going to play in this game against us, but he is suffering from somewhat of an oblique injury, so only time will tell if he's his full self. Now, the market for this game on Kalshi has the Seahawks at a 62% chance to win the game if you purchase the YES contract for the Seattle Seahawks to win the game. As you guys know, I look at things from the Raider perspective, and I gotta be honest with you. I know the Seahawks defense is awesome, but I'm pretty confident in our ability to score on any team in the league. Our defense has been horrible, but we catch a little bit of a break here. The Seahawks still don't have a completely healthy running back game yet, and Drew Locke again is suffering from that oblique injury. So if you throw $25 on this yes contract, it's a payout of $63.05. Now, if you are. Interested in checking out Kalshi, you can use code all aboard to instantly get 25 when you trade 25. What makes Kalshi so unique and different from your typical sports book is that when you're using your typical sports book, you're betting against the house. With Kalshi, you are not betting against anything. You are not betting at all. You are purchasing yes or no contracts. It's peer-to-peer trading based off of specific yes or no outcomes that you can think of in all sorts of topics, from movies to television to politics to media to sports, you name it. Okay, so obviously, look, Mendoza is the main topic of discussion here, but I do want to just hit on Kirk Cousins for a little bit, then we're going to hit on the trade itself, and then we'll hit on Mendoza and what this means for the rest of the season, because I don't think this is we've just thrown in the towel, but we'll get to that in a second. Kirk Cousins is an incredible To come in here, to do what he did, to understand the assignment. To never make it uncomfortable for Mendoza. To play his ass off. Not only did we get, you know, eight and a half competitive games out of him. The guy threw 20 touchdowns. As a 38-year-old coming off an Achilles injury, he was able to develop Brock and Trey and help the offensive line come together and avoid being sacked a ton. And... Mentor Mendoza. And if Mendoza is the player we think he is, Kirk Cousins' legacy, a part of his legacy, will be shepherding Mendoza. So you want to talk about once a Raider, always a Raider. I will always have love and respect in my heart for Kirk Cousins. And honestly, I am a little sad to see him go. Just because... He was perfect for us. He was perfect. Like, yeah, could he have played a little bit better short? There's not a lot of people, including myself, who thought he would be better than advertised. That thought he was going to be this good. Good enough to be able to flip him for a third round pick. I'm going to tell you this right now. I'm obviously, look at me, a Raider fan through and through. But once we're eliminated from contention, I am all in on the Minnesota Vikings and Kirk Cousins. Go win that division. Go win a freaking Super Bowl and potentially shift your legacy to the Hall of Fame because he was passing John Elway on all these marks here. If he goes out and he wins a Super Bowl in Minnesota, which they can with that defense, I will be the champion of Kirk Cousins more so than I even am right now. Um, give it up in the comments for Kirko Chains, man. Like, just an incredible guy, had an incredible season for us, and I'm rooting for the Vikings, man. With all that being said, I would have loved the second. Obviously, I was saying, like, we should get a first for him, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. A third round pick is phenomenal from John Spitek. And what's interesting about that is... It also clearly shows that they're ready for Fernando because you could see a world where they're like folding their arms and they're saying a second or nothing. That's not the case, man. We got a third round pick that we could help bolster this team in this coming draft, which is one of the better drafts we've seen in a long time, especially from the skill position guys and some of the defensive linemen. It's a deep draft. And the fact that SpyTech was able to get a third for this, which maybe he could, I saw, I think Graf tweeted, maybe we could grab some of these picks and flip them for like a George Pickens. Who knows? Only time will tell. But this is the correct move. I don't think there's going to be anybody that's watching this that's a Raider fan that doesn't think that this wasn't the right move. I will say this. If you guys, I'm just pulling it up right now. Are not in my Discord. You have to be. Because it absolutely exploded once we traded Kirk Cousins. And it's, look, they say it. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Christmas time is here. Thanksgiving, what are we thankful for? We're thankful for Kirk Cousins. We're thankful for John Spitek. And now, like we've been saying, the future is now. Because it's not going to be Aidan O'Connell, don't worry. Scheffner tweeted out. Number one overall pick Fernando Mendoza will take over as the quarterback following the Kirk Cousins trade to Minnesota. The four and five Raiders and Mendoza's first two career starts will come against the Seahawks and the Broncos, two of the NFL's top defenses. And I'm here to tell you right now, I don't give one ---- who we're playing. I'm ready for the kid to show what he's got. You think I'm afraid of the Seahawks? You think I'm afraid of the Broncos? They can't score. Now, to be fair, we make everybody look like Patrick Mahomes and Joe Montana and Steve Young, so that's not great. However, Fernando Mendoza was 1-1. Fernando Mendoza is going to make mistakes. In fact, I want to see him make mistakes because it's not about rookies. Not making mistakes. It's about rookies making mistakes and overcoming them in the games and weeks to come. Fernando Mendoza is probably going to throw an interception in the Seattle Seahawks game. I don't care. It's how he bounces back. And you might be thinking, okay, are we punting on the season? Is the season now over competitively because Mendoza's now a part of the starting lineup and Cousins is gone? Eh, no. We're Kirk Cousins. Beats Mendoza in his brain, processing defenses. Mendoza destroys Kirk Cousins and his ability to scramble for first downs and stretch the ball down the field. If you got Trey Tucker in fantasy, get ready for Trey Tucker's breakout season to be even better. Fernando Mendoza is one of the smartest rookies of the last decade and a half to come out. He will be able to process a lot of information, but we have to make sure that we can establish some sort of running game in these next two games because you don't want to go out there and just have Fernando Mendoza throw the ball 50 times against Mike McDonald. Yes, the Seahawks are reeling, but they're still the Seahawks. The Broncos can't score, but they're still winning games. So all that to say, I'm excited for Fernando Mendoza to start. I believe that he's going to make mistakes. That's okay. Every rookie does. We have that perspective about this. But I believe we are still going to be just as competitive as we were before with him now in this starting lineup. And I believe that the Vikings have a legit chance to win the Super Bowl with Kirk Cousins. And I'm rooting for them all the way once the Raiders are eliminated. Kirk Cousins, if you ever watch this video, thank you so much for what you did for Raider Nation. I cannot thank you enough for what you did. And if Mendoza becomes a Hall of Famer one day, that is part of your legacy, Kirk Cousins. You helped create what could be a perennial pro bowler. If he one day turns into that, we're not punting on the season. The season has just begun. Four and five, like Kubiak says, everything ahead of us. You're playing a backup quarterback, Drew Locke, Oblique. They can't score. If Kirk, excuse me, if Fernando Mendoza comes in, And beat Seattle. Get ready. Get ready, Raider Nation, because it's on the board. Shout out to my $5 and $10 patrons and YouTube members. I have to shout out a new patron, or excuse me, new YouTube member that I didn't know I had for a week. And I've been not shouting him out, and I apologize. Feld Stew G. Shout out to you, Feld Stew G. Hit that like button, comment away, and please be sure to subscribe. Just for after I'm not in charge of you. I love you guys. And I'll see you next time.