Should the 4-5 Raiders Trade Cousins and Start Fernando Mendoza?

With the trade deadline approaching, Rich has a question running in the background of Monday night's Vikings and Bills game, like an app downloading while you do other things. Carson Wentz will be front and center. But is Wentz the long-term answer in Minnesota? And if not, do the Vikings go get a quarterback?

That depends, Rich said, on whether this is a soft benching of Kyler Murray, or whether Kyler is hurt to the point that the Vikings don't want him chased around by the Bills. Either way, it was clearly not working out the way Sam Darnold did in 2024.

Getting a quarterback in the middle of a season is a radical idea, Rich said. Some teams are forced into it, like the Ravens. "Trust me, nobody in that building two weeks ago, when they're walking into Western New York to take on the Bills with Lamar coming back, is saying, 'I wonder what Jacoby Brissett's availability is,'" he said. Others only think they need to.

So who could Minnesota target? Rich floated Daniel Jones, who has been in the Vikings' system before. And then there is Kirk Cousins. When Kevin O'Connell arrived in 2022, Cousins was his guy. That year, Dalvin Cook, the brother of the running back Minnesota will try to stop on Monday night, led the team in rushing, Justin Jefferson led in receiving for a third straight year, and the Vikings went 13-4 before going one and done against Daniel Jones. Cousins stuck around the next year, and they went 7-10.

The catch is whether the Raiders would part with Cousins. That brings Rich to the real question. Las Vegas is 4-5, which Rich called the "sniffing it category." The Raiders are a game behind the Browns for the eighth seed and a game behind the Patriots, who beat them.

Would you really go to Maxx Crosby and tell him you are pulling the plug and going to the kid, Fernando Mendoza? Only if the kid is ready, Rich said, and only if you can get something significant for Cousins. Even then, he doesn't think you do it, because when Mendoza does take over, you want Cousins right there.

Rich acknowledged it would be tough for Cousins to mentor from the backup role. "But he's the type of guy that will do it," Rich said. "Did it for Penix. Sure, he wasn't terribly happy about it, but he took the job knowing what the job requires, which is arguably a competition with Mendoza and then a mentor for Mendoza."

He thinks the switch to Mendoza comes only when the Raiders realize it is a tall order to keep stacking wins toward the playoffs. The schedule tells that story. Next up is Seattle, with Drew Lock expected to be ready after getting banged up in the win over Arizona, to the point where Jalen Milroe was warming up. "Wouldn't that be wild if Jalen Milroe starts?" Rich said. After that comes a trip to Denver in Week 11, a game Rich believes Cousins is clearly better equipped to play. Then a trip to Cleveland and a bye. "That's where it might happen," he said.

Not everyone in the studio agreed. One voice argued Cousins won't be on the team next year, so why not get an asset back now? Rich pushed back. If Cousins walks as a free agent, the Raiders might land a compensatory pick, and a deadline trade might not return much more. "I'd rather hold on to them and get a better comp pick," he said.

For Rich, it comes down to the locker room. "It just makes no sense to say to a team that's getting their brains beaten in, 'We're four and five, we're one game out of the playoffs, we're pulling the plug and we're starting the kid,'" he said.

The room went back and forth on whether Mendoza is better than Cousins right now. Cousins is "balling out," as one voice put it, though he can't move, one reason the run game has been ineffective. Rich's answer stayed the same. "I just don't think you do it."