HENDERSON, Nev. — Las Vegas Raiders coach Klint Kubiak still hasn’t announced a starting quarterback with the regular season two weeks away.
However all indications are Kirk Cousins likely will be behind center when the Raiders open their season Sept. 13 against the Miami Dolphins.
Cousins received the lion’s share of first-team snaps in training camp and was the starter in the two Las Vegas preseason games he played.
He carries the experience of what will be his 15th NFL season as the Raiders bring along rookie and No. 1 overall draft pick Fernando Mendoza. All three drives Cousins quarterbacked this preseason ended in points — a touchdown and two field goals.
“I just think he’s taking practice to the field,” Kubiak said Friday. “He’s led scoring drives. We would have loved to lead three touchdown scoring drives, so we’re not satisfied with field goals, and that’s an area that we need to improve at. But I see a guy that’s leading the offense.”
Kubiak and general manager John Spytek have to decide whether to keep three quarterbacks when they cut the roster to 53 players on Sunday.
Aidan O’Connell is in his fourth season, all with the Raiders, and he could be the first one onto the field should Cousins get injured or struggle. That would give Mendoza even more time to develop — if the coaches go that route.
“We have three guys that are ready to play,” Kubiak said. “It’s going to be some hard decisions on who’s 1, who’s 2, and that’s not a decision that we have to make today. But those are discussions that are ongoing.”
Mendoza ended his preseason by leading one of five drives to a field goal in Thursday night’s 18-12 loss to San Francisco. He completed 7 of 14 passes for 57 yards against a fierce 49ers pass rush in which Mendoza also was sacked twice and intercepted once.
The interception was a high throw to Jalen Nailor that bounced off his hands.
“I thought it was an excellent throw,” Kubiak said. “ ripped it just like we asked him to on time. Yeah, it was a little bit high. Jalen’s got to make the play.”
Now Mendoza could watch games from the sideline if Cousins enters the season as the starter, though Kubiak could pull a surprise and go with the rookie. It seems, either way, a matter of time before Mendoza takes over.
If this is Cousins’ offense, he said he took inspiration from what Tom Brady told the team early in camp. The seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback and Raiders minority owner told the players they couldn’t simply go to practice and think that would be enough.
“You’ve got to find your edge within those practices, or post practice, or in the way you relate to one another,” Cousins said. “So there’s ways you’ve got to find edges, but it’s not just showing up to practice and doing your job because everybody’s doing that.”
Kubiak didn’t say whether running back Ashton Jeanty would return soon after getting hurt in practice Sunday, but was optimistic overall. Jeanty couldn’t put weight on his right leg as he was helped off the field.
“He’s still on the mend and we’re still working to get him back,” Kubiak said. “We got another week to assess how he’s going to look going into this first game, but we’re counting on him.”
The running game won’t rest entirely on Jeanty. Rookie Mike Washington Jr. had a productive camp and averaged 7.3 yards in rushing for 168 yards in the preseason.
“I think that they’re both going to prepare to play a lot of football and as these games unfold, you react to the game,” Kubiak said. “I think we got two guys that we’re really excited about. We got some younger guys that we’re really excited about, too.”
Cousins said he sent Kubiak, in his first season as head coach, a one-page memo of what he thought about organized team activities. The QB began by telling Kubiak it “was the most urgent and efficient OTAs I’ve ever been a part of.”
“I felt that continued in training camp,” Cousins said. “The word I’d use is urgency. I felt urgency preparing for this game , I even felt urgency in this game, and that starts with your head coach. It certainly trickles down through the coaching staff and through your team, but starts with the tone that Klint sets. I felt it from the first day I arrived in the building in April.
“That’s just the way Klint’s wired and I think the way Tom Brady’s wired. I think that urgency then kind of infiltrates the whole building.”
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