Albert Breer on Mendoza’s Struggles, Herbert’s Next Step, Donald Close to Returning?

No, no, no. This guy is excellent. This guy is at a very high level. All right, welcome in. It is the Brearport for Friday, August the 28th. We are into the final set of preseason games. The regular season is now just 12 days away. It's hard to believe we're almost there. And we got three topics for you on this morning's show. Our first topic, Fernando Mendoza struggling a little bit in his preseason finale as a Raiders rookie. And it's especially when you juxtapose it against what we saw from Kirk Cousins last night. Kirk Cousins, got the numbers up here, went eight of 11 for 51 yards, was efficient, an 82 quarterback rating. Mendoza completed half of his pass, a seven, a 14 for 57 yards, an interception, a 31 quarterback rating. He of course had the pick six last week against the Houston Texans. And I think it's an example of even when a young quarterback is doing all the right things and Fernando Mendoza is doing all the right things, there are some lumps he's gonna take over the course of time. And I think it also underscores how important maintaining his confidence is going to be for the Raiders organization and why they've taken the approach they've taken him in developing him the way that they are. Clint Kubiak's system and what he's working on with Kubiak and Offensive Coordinator Andrew Gianocco is very detailed, it's meticulous. There's a plan for how they bring quarterbacks along. Every coach who works within that family knows it. And so there's a process of learning to play under center for Fernando Mendoza, there's a footwork process, there's a process of tying your feet to your eyes and the timing of everything, your feet have to marry up with the progressions, your eyes have to marry up with your feet. So there's a lot of detail that goes into playing quarterback the way that they want you to play quarterback within that system. And it's interesting because we're gonna get into it with another rookie quarterback a little bit later in the show. But I think what you wanna make sure you're doing if you're the Raiders with Mendoza is you're making sure not only that you're teaching this and that he's implementing this, but that what you're implementing becomes sustainable over time. And so could they put Fernando Mendoza out there in an NFL game in two or three weeks? Sure, they could probably come up with a plan to have him out there and make him halfway competent. And again, lots of rookie quarterbacks play, Fernando Mendoza did play a lot of football in college, I think he could be functional out there. What they're really looking to do is create a environment for him out there where what they've taught him becomes sustainable. And over time, he isn't regressing because he's getting the crap knocked out of him or because he sees one thing and it's not exactly what he was expecting before the snap. And it becomes easier to game those things up the better the group around him is. So again, could they put him in a position where he'd be ready to play in the next two or three weeks? Sure. And if he winds up being the backup quarterback there over Aiden O'Connell, I mean, they are one snap away from that becoming a reality. But, so when you look at the totality of all of that, the fact becomes, we need to be good around him too. And if we're gonna be able to do this, and if we're gonna be able to create an environment for him to learn in, he's gotta be able to go out and run the office, but we gotta be in a position where we're ready to support him. And I think they're gonna wait until they get to that point to play him. They got Kirk Cousins, who of course has got a ton of background in the offense, played for Clint Kubiak in Minnesota, has background in the offense going all the way back to his rookie year, playing for Mike Shanahan. So they can get a good level of play from Kirk Cousins. He'll help the guys within that huddle, the other 10 guys in that huddle, get better over the course of time. And then when that group is ready to support Fernando Mendoza, when some of the younger offensive linemen have come along around Colton Miller and Tyler Little-Underbaum, when maybe they've developed the receiver core to a higher degree than where it is right now, guys like Malik Benson have come along. And when you've really got Brock Bowers entrenched in the offense, when Ashton Gente's out there, then maybe you're ready to put him out there where you know you're gonna be able to manage down and distance, you know you're gonna be able to give him clean looks at things. The key is being able to maintain his confidence when he's out there, and putting him in a position to succeed. Doesn't mean he's gonna be successful all the time, but put him in a position to succeed and put him in a position to take everything that he's been taught and sustain it over the course of time. So I don't think it's a terrible sign what we've seen so far. He's been tested in certain ways. You kind of have to keep chipping your way at it. And I think the signs internally have been good that Fernando Mendoza is gonna be exactly who they thought he was gonna be. All right, our second topic for today, the Los Angeles Chargers. They finished their preseason last night. Justin Herbert had a nice touchdown throw to Quentin Johnson. And this is a really interesting year for Justin Herbert. Because last year, I think he had a very real MVP case. In fact, when I cast my ballot, I had him fifth on my MVP pecking order. So the fact that Justin Herbert did what he did last year, I thought was very impressive. Given the fact that they had the tackle situation that they had. And being down not just for Sean Slater at left tackle and Joe Walt at right tackle, but going further down the line to a point where at one point they were down to their sixth and seventh tackles. Ladd McConkie had a little bit of a sophomore slump. Not all his fault, but had a little bit of a sophomore slump. Their young running back, Omarion Hampton, who they drafted in the first round in North Carolina got hurt. There were just a million things that went wrong. And Justin Herbert was able to help keep them afloat. Now, you know, you hope you've got a better injury luck. So, you know, you hope you're able to keep your offensive line together. They already lost Tyler Biadich. That was a significant loss. But you still have those two pillars on each end of the line. You're off, your tight end room is much better than it was a year ago. With Charlie Kolar coming in from Baltimore and David Njofu coming in from the Browns. And of course, Aranda Gadsden now going into his second year as a move tight end. Hampton's back as the bell cow running back. He's got some experience under his belt. And then at receiver, you've got a promising young guy in Trey Harris. You've got Quentin Johnston playing for a contract. You've got Ladd McConkie coming back. You know, I just think you look at how everything's coming together now. And this has a chance to be a really good football team. And so now what does it look like when it's not Justin Herbert keeping things afloat, it's Justin Herbert having a chance to elevate everybody. And he's got Mike McDaniel. And Mike McDaniel has never had a quarterback like this. And now we start to look at what Tua looks like without Mike McDaniel. And it's, wow, like maybe Mike was doing a little bit more than people knew. I really like where the Chargers are. And this is the type of year where it's like, okay, like, let's see it from Justin Herbert. I'll also say this. I know Justin Herbert's been criticized a lot on social media and otherwise. He's going into his seventh year now. He's a quarterback. The spotlight is hot on that position. This is part of what you sign up for when you play that position. I'm not here to defend Justin Herbert in ways that he doesn't deserve. What I would say is that the way people inside the league talk about Justin Herbert, it reminds me a lot of the way that people inside the league would talk about Matthew Stafford back in the day when he was in Detroit. And you heard Matthew Stafford publicly, people killing him. He's not that good. He can't lift that team up. People inside the league would keep telling you, no, no, no, this guy is excellent. This guy is at a very high level. People don't realize it. People who don't know what they're looking at don't understand it. And then he went to the Rams and we saw what happened. And I think that's sort of where the league is on Justin Herbert now. So it wouldn't surprise me if everything comes together for him there this year with the Chargers if he makes a real run at the MVP. And that's with Mike McDaniel as his offensive coordinator. That's with Slater and Ault as his tackles. That's with McConkie taking a step, Trey Harris taking a step, Quentin Johnston taking a step, Omarion Hampton taking a step. There's a lot of ifs there, but I think the pieces are in place now for Justin Herbert to have a monster year. Finally, third topic, a lot going on with the Rams. Ty Simpson looks pretty good again. And it's gonna be interesting to see where this goes. I would caution everybody, what you see in the preseason isn't always real. And they've put Ty Simpson in a good place to succeed. The good news is you're seeing some of the things that the Rams saw before the draft, which is an ability to play fast, some experience in college that translates right over to the pros, better than it does for Fernando Mendoza. Ty Simpson had real under center experience, had to go through progression reads at Alabama, but he has a ton of experience doing a lot of pro-like things. So the fact that he can kind of hit the ground running is great. So that's a plus. We'll see what it means. I'm not fully sold that that's 100% a hit with the 13th pick, but he's looked good in the preseason. They bring back Tutu Atwell, which to me is an interesting signing given that they have Devontae Adams, or an interesting trade given that they have Devontae Adams and Pukunukuwa there. Pukunukuwa's obviously been beat up. They're very different receivers. So that's one thing that I would emphasize, but it is interesting that they go back and they bring Tutu Atwell back. And then you've got the Aaron Donald situation, which at this point, I think it's really on Aaron and Aaron himself. And I know the Rams have felt for a few weeks like any day now he could pull the trigger and come back. I would go right back to where I was at the beginning of all of this, the beginning of the summer, which this is gonna come down to Aaron Donald's ability to feel like himself and be convinced that he can play like Aaron Donald is accustomed to playing. And the problem with that is the bar is higher for that than it is for maybe any defensive tackle ever. And does he feel like he can reach that level? And that's why he's been testing himself with Giff Smith and others at the Rams facility. That's why he's been pushing himself to see how far he can go physically. And I think that that's why the Rams do have to look at different plans. Now, again, I would preface what I'm about to say with everybody I've talked to at the Rams thinks he's not gonna wanna game it up and come in in October or November or December so he can be at full capacity in January. Understand that. I still wonder if that might be the best plan. The very least, I know Sean McVay and Aaron Donald have gone through a detailed plan. I think part of that plan would be him playing 30 or 40 snaps a game in a rotation because they've got a lot of depth at that position with Kobe Turner, with Braden Fisk, with Puna Ford, with Tyler Davis. There's a really good group on the interior of that defensive line so they don't need to run him out there for 80 or 90% of the snaps. But I do think for the time that he is out there, if it's more limited than what he was doing before, which, again, what he was doing before was off the charts, he wants to, for the snaps he's out there, be able to reach his accustomed level. And we'll see if he feels like he's gonna be able to get there. Appreciate you guys coming out. As always, you can leave your comments down below here on the YouTube page. You can also get to me on my social media, at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert R. Breer on Facebook, at Albert underscore Breer on Instagram. Next week, we have cutdowns, we'll probably have some trades, and we have the final week before the NFL regular season. We will see you guys then.