Mendoza didn’t run or do any of the other testing exercises, but he weighed in at a very solid 236 pounds — 11 pounds more than he weighed on the barrel just over a month ago. That’s quite remarkable considering how late Indiana’s season ended, with the Hoosier’s National Championship win over Miami on Jan. 19, as Mendoza had less time to prepare for the draft.
It appears that Mendoza is preparing not only for the draft, but also for his rookie season in the NFL and the years-long grind that comes with being a highly-drafted quarterback.
“A lot of coaches, a lot of coaches talk about the rookie wall. That when you play Jan. 19, you go straight to practice and you go all the way to next February, hopefully,” Mendoza told Lewis after practice. “But … I love football. I’ve never burned out. I’ll never hit a rookie wall.”
Mendoza said he rested for a week after the Miami game and then braced himself for the long haul.
“At the beginning of February (I started) training, lifting, running. All these things are fun for me and I find a lot of pride and satisfaction in that work anyway,” he said. “… It was a bit of an itch to get back. But part of performing is also rest, so I had a very calculated rest schedule.”
The workload and increased weight didn’t seem to stop him. After a long warm-up where Mendoza got loose with dozens of throws, he was ready to fight. Mendoza seemed to stick closely to his 56-pitch script, which relied heavily early on on shorter-duration throws, to nine different receivers.
When the action began, Mendoza threw with great tempo and speed. He completed his first 23 throws before WR EJ Williams took a slant glance off his hands. About halfway through his script, Mendoza had arguably one pass out of bounds, a slight roll on a “go” route. The only other ball to hit the John Mellencamp Pavillion turf was another drop, this one by TE Riley Nowakowski.
There were a handful of deeper attempts that were arguably thrown away, but it was an impressive display of accuracy nonetheless. NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah was impressed with the effort.
“To me, he accomplished three things today,” Jeremiah said. “No. 1, he showed up. That’s pretty much what he had to do. No. 2, he’s in tremendous shape. You can really tell he’s put on that weight, (he’s) close to 240 pounds. And No. 3, he threw the ball as well as you’d see him throw it on tape
“(There was) a lot more under center, so you got to see some of that as well. If you had a goal in it, I think it was three and he got all three.”
Mendoza’s accuracy — even in the sterile environment of pro day — stood out to NFL Network’s Bucky Brooks.
“I love the fact that the ball was consistently in the offensive zone,” Brooks said. “We talk about in these practices when you don’t have a defense on the field, you don’t necessarily want to see the ball on the ground, but more importantly, I want to see him consistently on the facemask. He did that and he made a lot of different opportunities, a lot of different throws.
“Touch, timing, anticipation — he did all of that. It’s exactly what you want to see in a pro practice.”
Now we wait to find out if the Raiders agree.