Raiders top pick QB Fernando Mendoza sees himself at 'bottom of totem pole'

The number one pick in the draft should feel like they're on top of the world. At least for the moment. But that's not how Fernando Mendoza feels. Regardless of his selection by the Las Vegas Raiders at the top of the draft, he sees himself having to work his way up from the bottom among his peers.

“I believe I’m still the underdog," Mendoza said over conference call shortly after being selected. "Although the draft was today, once I got drafted, I’m now part of the NFL, and I can tell you right now, I am not one out of 32. Although today I was picked one out of 32, I’m not one out of 32 quarterbacks at this moment. So I’ve got to work every single day possible, because I’m at the bottom of the totem pole. Whatever everyone has ranked me, I don’t know those specifics, but I’m at the bottom of the totem pole and I’ve got to earn first the respect of my teammates, earn that equity, I got to immerse, I’m just ready to do whatever the team needs and calls me to do to help them win.”

It may be what the team wants from him is to start from day one. But Mendoza seems to genuinely understand that if that is to happen, he must earn it. He has a proven starting quarterback in the building in Kirk Cousins who has been one of 32 and four times was in the upper tier of that group as he made four Pro Bowls in his career.

It's this humility by Mendoza that makes him all the more attractive as a player. And why the Raiders are confident he can be their franchise quarterback for the foreseeable future.

This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders top pick QB Fernando Mendoza sees himself at 'bottom of totem pole'