By admin 
The Raiders made Klint Kubiak their head coach in large part due to the success of Sam Darnold in the Seahawks offense in 2025.
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After a middling career, Darnold had an excellent season with Kubiak calling plays as the two paired up to deliver a Super Bowl winning offense to Seattle. One area where Darnold excelled was making plays when outside of the pocket.
Last season Sam Darnold was the best quarterback in the NFL when outside of the pocket, leading the NFL in DVOA, according to FTN Fantasy. There were only three quarterbacks in the league to post a positive DVOA when outside of the pocket, and Darnold led the pack.
On the flip side, the worst quarterback in the NFL when outside the pocket was former Raiders starter Geno Smith. The Raiders shipped Smith back to the Jets to clear the way for Fernando Mendoza and Kirk Cousins in the quarterback room.
While it would be surprising to see Kubiak turn the 37-year-old Cousins into a great quarterback outside of the pocket, Mendoza would seemingly stand to benefit.
On the way to winning the Heisman Trophy, Mendoza was excellent beyond just throwing from a clean pocket.
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The Indiana quarterback had the fourth best Pro Football Focus grade when passing under pressure, and he was sixth best when blitzed. The only true flaw in Mendoza’s season was how many sacks he took.
Mendoza was dragged down 25 times for a sack last season, which is not a high number. But Indiana’s offensive line was one of the best in the country. Mendoza ranked outside the top 100 in pressure to sack ratio getting taken down on 18.9 percent of total pressures, according to PFF.
Stopping the Sacks
Seattle allowed 25 sacks last season, tied for the fifth least in the NFL. Las Vegas allowed the most sacks at 64. The offensive line will have to take a step forward, but the addition of Kubiak and the subtraction of Smith should make the Raiders better even when the defense pressures the quarterback.
But the Raiders’ offensive line doesn’t project to be a good unit in 2026. That may be factoring into the decision to sit Mendoza at the start of the season. Las Vegas doesn’t want to see their franchise cornerstone get beat up.
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This story was originally published July 26, 2026 at 6:38 AM.