The Las Vegas Raiders are sitting pretty at the top of the 2026 draft board, and apparently, everyone in the league suddenly remembers how to dial a phone. Yes, the No. 1 pick is officially on the menu, or at least that’s what half the NFL hopes. Meanwhile, general manager John Spytek is doing his best impression of someone casually ignoring 47 missed calls.
Let’s be real. When you own the first pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, your phone doesn’t just ring, it screams. Teams are calling, texting, probably sending carrier pigeons at this point. Everyone wants to trade up, everyone has “the perfect offer,” and every single one of those offers is, according to Spytek, “interesting.” Which is corporate-speak for, “Nice try, hang up.”
The reason for all this attention? Quarterback Fernando Mendoza. The Raiders are widely expected to grab him and finally solve their never-ending quarterback puzzle.
But here’s where it gets funny. Even though the Raiders are “expected” to take Mendoza, they’re still listening to offers. Of course they are. This is the NFL. Nobody just says no outright. You listen, nod, pretend to think about it, and then politely decline while asking for three extra first-round picks just for fun.
“We’ve gotten a few calls, and those teams know where they stand,” Spytek said at Tuesday’s predraft news conference.
“If there’s a player that stands out that we feel it’s not worth losing, it’s not worth even picking up the phone, then we’ll just make the pick,” Spytek said. “But if it’s a player that we’re not as excited about, or there’s a group of players that we would love to pick from, and we can get value for that, we’re certainly open to listening to that.”
Mendoza is expected to become the 30th quarterback selected No. 1 in the common draft era (since 1967). It would be the fourth straight year a quarterback is picked first, tied for the second-longest streak in the common draft era.
“Ultimately, this is a meritocracy, and the best guy will play,” Spytek said. “It’s just really hard to play really well at a young age. But we’ve seen plenty of quarterbacks do it recently. We added Kirk, we have Aidan, and we’ll see how it goes.”
“It’s a hard position to play, and there’s a lot to learn beyond throwing [a] football and being a good teammate,” Spytek said. “A lot of these guys live their entire life in shotgun [formation]. They don’t huddle. You really got to teach some of these guys how to run a huddle, how to break a huddle, how to get under center and call a cadence.”
He added: “We all understand there’s not a ton of patience in the job that we chose here, but if you can find some level of patience and put people in positions when they’re ready, that’s the best way forward.”
At the end of the day, the Raiders hold all the power. They can draft their future quarterback, they can trade down for a king’s ransom, or they can keep everyone guessing until the very last second just for entertainment purposes.
