HENDERSON, Nev. — With the regular season just two weeks away, Las Vegas Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak has yet to name a starting quarterback. This decision remains critical as the team prepares for the upcoming games, and the uncertainty could impact their offensive strategy moving forward.
1 overall draft pick Fernando Mendoza .
“I just think he’s taking practice to the field,” Kubiak said Friday. 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. “He’s still on the mend and we’re still working to get him back,” Kubiak said. “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. Cousins said he sent Kubiak, in his first season as head coach, a one-page memo of what he thought about organized team activities. “I felt that continued in training camp,” Cousins said.
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. All three drives Cousins quarterbacked this preseason ended in points — a touchdown and two field goals. “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. “We got another week to assess how he’s going to look going into this first game, but we’re counting on him. “I think we got two guys that we’re really excited about. We got some younger guys that we’re really excited about, too. The QB began by telling Kubiak it “was the most urgent and efficient OTAs I’ve ever been a part of. “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.
