Albert Breer

And they really wanted to get ahead of it.

So they'd be able to kind of have a refined process when they got to the spring.

And so, like, I think, you know, by the time, you know,

Fernando Mendoza's winning the national championship with Tom Brady and John Spitek and Mark Davis in attendance.

They were already like 90% of the way there.

And then Mendoza, I mean, look, like between the combine formal, the 30 visit, the three Zooms they did, which basically turned into installs, you know, Mendoza getting to know the guys there, getting to know Kubiak, the 30 visit, like all of it.

Like, I think...

you know, you just, every box got checked.

And, you know, it's funny.

I thought about like, I don't know what your experience was watching him in the fall, but I remember like the first time I heard one of his interviews, I had the same reaction everybody else did.

Like, this is kind of weird, you know?

And like, but I feel like the more you watch him, the more he kind of grew on you.

You know what I mean?

The more I was like,

That's really who he is.

And that's cool.

You know, it was like kind of like a different version of Andrew Luck, you know.

And so, you know, I think the Raiders kind of came to a real comfort level in what they were looking at in January.

And then Mendoza just checked every box.

I think the one thing that's sort of interesting here, too, I know we don't want to spend too much time on this specifically, but I do think his story resonated with Tom Brady.