Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza is on top of the world after winning the Heisman Trophy and national championship as the quarterback of the Indiana Hoosiers. Now, he’s slated to be the first overall pick in April’s draft, which has led to him being picked apart by scouts and analysts.
As more analysis came out, a former NFL quarterback and Hall of Famer came to Mendoza’s defense.
Kurt Warner Comes to Fernando Mendoza’s Defense
Draft season is upon us, and that causes all kinds of analysis about the players who are about to enter the draft, and how they may compare to other prospects that have come before them.
Fernando Mendoza is no different. He’s expected to be the first quarterback selected, if not the first overall pick in April’s draft.
With that expectation comes the scrutiny. One Twitter/X user opined that Mendoza would not be a top-10 quarterback prospect if we went all the way back to 2020 and started to compare him.
Kurt Warner saw the tweet and jumped in to defend Mendoza immediately. “Maybe, just maybe we let the kid PLAY in the NFL before we decide???? Crazy, the nerve of some ppl to tell us who we are without ever seeing us do said thing… I remember those ppl!” he tweeted.
Warner is right, part of the NFL Draft process is forming opinions, and part of the fun is comparing players to those that came before them.
Is Fernando Mendoza as good a draft prospect as, say, Jordan Love of the Green Bay Packers? Who knows. That is a conversation for a different day. What we do know is that once a player is in the NFL, their status as a prospect does not matter as much.
Nunca rendirse, por Fernando Mendoza pic.twitter.com/36TPZatCxg
— Gilberto Galván Quirino (@quirino_galvan) January 20, 2026
Love, for example, was dubbed as one of the worst first-round draft choices in recent memory. That was due, in part, to the circumstances surrounding him.
Now, Love was a fringe MVP candidate and has established himself as a worthy heir to the throne that Aaron Rodgers sat on for longer than any player in the history of the storied franchise.
Mendoza will get an opportunity to do just that when the Las Vegas Raiders, or whoever picks number one, is on the clock. Once he is picked, expectations will be placed upon him, but all that really matters is how the player in question plays.
Warner would later point out that he heard several times that he was not any good before he was able to step on the field. Of course, Warner turned into a three-time Super Bowl participant, two-time NFL MVP, and one of the best stories in the last 30 years.
Mendoza is not going to be a scrappy underdog story like Warner, who went from bagging groceries in Green Bay to the top of the NFL world.
Mendoza will have the expectation to be great once he steps on the field. Is that fair? Probably not, but that’s the way the NFL works in this modern era, where nobody has the patience to watch a player develop.
Regardless, Mendoza can rest assured knowing he has a Hall of Fame quarterback in his corner as he makes the transition from college to the NFL.
