Kirk Cousins' fight invites unnecessary pressure on Raiders with Fernando Mendoza

Kirk Cousins has reached the no-nonense phase of his career. Reports out of Las Vegas Raiders training camp indicated he's acting like the starting quarterback and making his feelings about teammates' antics well known. So well known he got into a physical altercation with star pass rusher Maxx Crosby.

The team quickly got a grip over the situation and held both players out of practice on Saturday. That meant No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza got first-team reps all to himself, which could go a longer way towards his eventual NFL regular season debut than folks realize.

"It's great that Fernando Mendoza got all the first-team reps, got to work with all the starters but the reason was because Kirk Cousins and Maxx Crosby got into that little scuffle," NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport explained. "It's the kind of thing everyone notices; it's the kind of thing that could have wide-ranging ramifications."

The Raiders' QB battle is one of a handful under heavy scrutiny as training camps are in full swing. It feels like it was settled the moment the team brought in Cousins on a five-year, $172 million deal. Though we've seen franchises make brash decisions based on veteran behavior, fan anxiety and other external factors before.

Raiders may have to hold off fan pressure to start Fernando Mendoza sooner than Kirk Cousins wants

Cousins is going to be the Week 1 starter for the Raiders. Only a serious injury could prevent that from occurring, but the one thing the team won't be able to predict is the fan pressure. How quickly will the attendees at Allegiant Stadium and online be calling for Mendoza to take over?

If Mendoza was demonstrating typical rookie tendencies and required significant development before being considered for the starting role, he wouldn't have been receiving split reps with Cousins in the first place. Coaches are recognizing he's displaying the Heisman Trophy-winning qualities the team drafted him for.

The calls for Mendoza to start are only going to grow. Cousins is going to have massive pressure to overdeliver because that's the only kind of performance that'll keep his job safe. The Raiders aren't going to contend for the AFC West this year and it shouldn't shock anybody if the team manages to flip Crosby by the trade deadline.

By that point, Mendoza will probably have made his first NFL start and Cousins will once again be sitting on the bench counting his $20 million in guaranteed money. The only issue will be how soon the team caves to the fan demands. You don't want to rush someone like Mendoza into action and that's probably what part-owner Tom Brady advised when the team decided to go with the Cousins-Mendoza pairing for this year.

Las Vegas should milk Cousins for every penny's worth of his guaranteed first year. Sure, the marketing for Mendoza — just the fourth QB the franchise has drafted in the first round since the league merger — is probably very lucrative, but that's a shortsighted vision. Developing him properly could yield better results if he emerges as a long-term passing solution the franchise has desperately needed.

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