Raiders rookies report to Henderson on July 23, and the No. 1 overall pick is not under contract yet. Fernando Mendoza remains one of two unsigned first-round picks from April’s draft, along with Rams quarterback Ty Simpson, taken No. 13.
Mendoza confirmed his status himself in late June, telling Front Office Sports he couldn’t follow through on a donation just yet: “I haven’t even signed my Raiders contract yet.” The terms have been settled for months, according to former agent Joel Corry of CBS Sports — four years, $57.27 million, fully guaranteed, with a $38.11 million signing bonus and a fifth-year option. Nobody is arguing about those numbers.
As In The Rafters reported in June, the dispute is over the payment calendar. Every No. 1 pick since Joe Burrow in 2020 has collected his signing bonus in a single lump sum shortly after signing. The Raiders’ recent practice is different. Their last three first-round picks — Ashton Jeanty, Brock Bowers and Tyree Wilson — each received 77.5 percent of the bonus within 15 days of signing, another 12.5 percent in mid-September and the final 10 percent in mid-October, per Corry. “This is really over how the signing bonus is gonna be paid. Nothing more, nothing less,” he told the Locked On Raiders podcast.
The gap is small on paper and familiar in practice. Las Vegas has held its installment structure through three straight first-round negotiations, and the full amount is owed either way; conceding a lump sum for Mendoza would set the template for every high pick that follows. That is the kind of precedent front offices defend longer than the dollar figures would suggest.
Nobody around the team is treating it as a crisis. Raider Nation Radio’s Q Myers said in early July he expects the deal done before camp opens, and rookie holdouts have all but vanished under the wage scale. Simpson’s talks bear watching, though: if the Rams cut their quarterback a lump-sum check first, the Raiders would be the only team still holding out for installments.
The football has gone on without interruption. Mendoza worked the full offseason program, and coach Klint Kubiak has Kirk Cousins positioned to open the season while the rookie develops behind him. The only thing missing is the signature. If it is still missing when rookies walk into the building next Thursday, it becomes the first question of Kubiak’s first camp.
