HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — A bridge quarterback, a placeholder, a mentor.
Kirk Cousins was described those ways as fans of the Raiders specifically and the NFL in general talked openly about when No. 1 overall draft pick Fernando Mendoza would take over.
Nine touchdown passes and three victories later, Cousins has gone from looking like a temporary occupant to one who might hold down Las Vegas' QB position for some time while Mendoza continues to develop.
That is, as long as Cousins continues to produce at a high level for the undefeated Raiders, who host Kansas City (3-0) on Sunday.
“That’s the great part about this league is you’ve got to go out every single week and prove it to yourself, prove it to everyone else,” Cousins said. “So I’ve never really felt like anything was going to be handed to me or given to me. You got to go out and play at that level, and I think the opportunity was what I was more interested in, was just having an opportunity to go see. But you got to go do it.”
He threw three touchdown passes in each of his first three games, against Miami, the Los Angeles Chargers and New Orleans. That has him tied for the NFL lead in TD tosses with San Francisco's Brock Purdy, and he has the most in the first three games of a season for any Raiders quarterback.
Cousins also is completing 67.4% of his passes and has a 107.2 passer rating.
Going back to last season with Atlanta, Cousins has won seven games in a row, the league's longest active streak. Should the Raiders, 5 1/2-point underdogs, beat the Chiefs, Cousins would become the first quarterback since the 1970 merger to win four consecutive games for two teams in the same streak.
“He's been a joy to play with,” center Tyler Linderbaum said. “He is a competitor, wants to win, will do anything that it takes to win. You want to play for a guy like that.”
Linderbaum signed the most lucrative deal for an interior offensive lineman in league history, a three-year, $81 million contract with $60 million guaranteed. He is a crucial piece to the Raiders' rebuilding plans, which, at least to this point, are ahead of schedule.
The Raiders didn't have to pay as much to get Cousins, who signed a two-year deal with $20 million guaranteed and the Falcons paying $8.7 million of it.
Cousins from the beginning was looked at outside the Raiders facility as a placeholder until Mendoza is ready. The 38-year-old veteran outplayed the rookie in training camp to earn the starting spot.
Some national pundits argued that the Raiders should go with Mendoza anyway, even if it meant going through some growing pains. Raiders coach Klint Kubiak stayed true to his word that the better quarterback would play.
With Cousins remaining that QB, does that give Kubiak and the staff more room to be patient with Mendoza?
“We’re just worried about playing the next game, and (Cousins is) playing this next game,” Kubiak said. “Fernando's ready to go when called upon.”
Kubiak and Cousins have a working relationship that began well before this season. Cousins was Minnesota's quarterback from 2019-21 when Kubiak was on the Vikings' staff, the first two seasons as the quarterbacks coach and the final year as offensive coordinator.
During that stretch, Cousins was fourth in the NFL in passer rating at 105.0, fifth in touchdown passes with 94, sixth in passing yards with 12,089 and seventh in completion rate at 67.6%.
“I just appreciate (his) organizational skills, but also the desire to continuously improve,” Cousins said of Kubiak. “He doesn’t allow the outcome of a win to cause him to let his guard down on things that need to be coached hard, and that’s comforting for me because I love kind of feeling like nothing’s going to get past his watchful eye.
“So I think there’s a kindred spirit there from a continuous improvement mindset, and that gives me peace.”
Safety Treydan Stukes (concussion) practiced in full Wednesday, but right guard Jackson Powers-Johnson (groin) did not work out.
Kubiak said he hoped backup quarterback Aidan O'Connell, whose father died last week, would return by the end of the week.
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