'Fernando Mendoza is amazing:' Matt Hasselbeck on the future Raiders QB, Rivers' master class, Caleb/Ben, Brock Purdy disrespect
Transcript from our conversation with the insightful 18-year vet inside. Few view the position quite like Hasselbeck.
Good morn! I know we’ve got many subscribers who prefer words over pods. So, here’s the written transcript from my conversation with former NFL Pro Bowler Matt Hasselbeck last week. (Video and audio is also accessible here.)
Always a pleasure shooting the bull with Hasselbeck.
Topics include…
Philip Rivers dusted off the cleats at 44… and played well! Were other quarterbacks paying attention? There’s one valuable lesson to take.
Is Tom Brady’s itch to play worth scratching?
Flag football is not the NFL.
At No. 1, the Las Vegas Raiders will select Fernando Mendoza. Hasselbeck says Indiana’s Heisman winner checks every single box.
What was wrong with Geno Smith in 2025?
Hasselbeck sees the Raiders as a perfect ecosystem for a young quarterback.
When do you know any young QB is ready to start? Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers and others sat. Others benefit from baptism by fire. Hasselbeck pinpoints precisely what should compel a head coach to play a rookie.
The bar for Caleb Williams was made clear by Ben Johnson, and he was clutch. Hasselbeck reflects.
Who is the most disrespected quarterback in football? Brock Purdy.
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Tom Brady, he’s in the news. I think about quarterbacks like yourself, Matt, where you played two decades and every quarterback probably believes they can play forever. Now, it sounds like Tom Brady still has that itch.
Hasselbeck: Don’t blame Tom Brady. Blame Philip Rivers because Philip Rivers at 44 years old — he’s just been coaching high school football, so the ball’s been in his hand a bunch — he got up off the couch and he went into Seattle and basically played better than any other quarterback with the exception of Matthew Stafford. He played better than any other quarterback in the NFL against that Seahawks defense. And left the field with the lead. The defense couldn’t hold onto the lead and the Seahawks kick a game-winner. But that’s your world champions. At their place. And Philip Rivers at 44, he can’t run. He could never run, but he’s got all the other stuff. And the stuff that matters. The leadership and the knowledge of how to protect himself and protect the team with pass pro and all that. And it’s all the stuff that Brady can still do. He could do better now than ever. And so when I saw him playing the flag football thing and really the pros got smoked, which is not surprising because I’ve played against the flag guys and it’s a totally different game. But he completely still has all the physical. I would say he actually looks like he’s in better shape than he was when he came out of Michigan. He throws it better. He moves better. He’s more handsome. He’s aging in reverse. It’s ridiculous. So I don’t know what other elixirs he’s on, but we all need to be taking them because he looks amazing. So no, it doesn’t surprise me at all that he felt competitive and had a scoreboard and he was just in it. Because you miss that stuff and he certainly can still throw the ball.
How long did you have that feeling yourself when you walked away? When you’re watching football?
Hasselbeck: The first year out, I actually think your body is ready for a breather. You’re like, “Man, I am done getting tackled. I am done getting hit in the head. I’m done breaking ribs.” Whatever the things are. But then that second year out, you actually feel great. You feel better than you felt the year before. And so I don’t think the age is really a number. I don’t think Tom Brady gets out of bed like most people is like, “Oh, my back hurts. Oh, my feet hurt. All my shoulder’s got arthritis.” I don’t think he feels that way. I think he feels great. I think he probably eats healthy. He gets great sleep. He’s doing all the things. And so, no, he probably today feels better than he did when he walked off the field for the last time after getting the crap beat out of him for 17 weeks in a row.
And here’s the thing about Brady. He played 22 years. But he played like 24 seasons if you count his playoff games. So the dude played 24 years in 22 years if that makes any sense. When the rest of the quarterbacks in his era were in Cabo doing nothing, that dude was playing playoff games and Super Bowls. It’s pretty crazy.
That’s a great point on Rivers. I assumed it would be humiliating when he returned to the NFL —Old Man Rivers is going to get dragged off the field. And you’re right. He had the lead against the Super Bowl champs late in that game. The NFL has moved to a point where if you’re not mobile, if you’re not athletic, if you’re not a quarterback that can create and play-make, you’re not even going to make it to the NFL. How was he able to do that? And what can we take from that Rivers finish?
Hasselbeck: All those young quarterbacks should be studying him. They all want to rely on their feet and their legs. All of a sudden their first, second, third read’s not there. They dip their eyes and they go. Right-handers usually break contain to the right — and the defense knows this. So the defensive end on that side, he’s taught, “Get your right hand up where the ball would be coming out or your left hand up where the ball would be coming out, and then you get ready for him to escape that way.” The details of pass rush and scouting reports on quarterbacks, they’re real. So Philip Rivers, what are you going to say? He’s going to be right there, 7 ½ yards behind the center. Sometimes 9 ½ yards behind the center. And he’s just going to do this little subtle, like Dan Marino shift basically one yard each direction with his eyes downfield the whole time. Ball getting out of his hands on time and accurate. Similar to what Tom Brady’s whole career was. Tom Brady was a very, very slow person in the 40-yard dash. So I just think that sometimes the guys who are more athletic and can rely on that, it actually impedes their development as a guy who can play the game the way Philip Rivers played it this year.
So could Tom Brady — say he gives up his ownership and he wants to play that bad, he’s willing to lose God knows how much money to play football — would a team want him? And what would it look like at this point? At 48?
Hasselbeck: Well, he already owns a team. He’s already got the team. Send Mendoza to the Jets. I know Geno’s the Promised Land guy. Whatever that was.
No, no. The answer’s no. He makes way too much money doing what he’s doing, not getting hit in the head and he had his time. But it’s fun to dream. And even like you mentioned the Philip Rivers thing, I think there were a lot of quarterbacks my age — when Philip Rivers started playing — they were like, “Well, shoot, man, he’s probably going to pop a calf here at some point. He’s probably going to have a pickleball injury that my friends are having. So maybe I should start getting in shape so that I’m ready for the call after he gets hurt.” I think that’s what guys in their 40s were sort of thinking. Didn’t happen. Good for Philip. I think there were a lot of middle-aged men rooting for him.
But no, Brady. It’s over. But the flag thing’s really interesting because there’s this opportunity, the Olympics. This is something, if you grew up as a football player, it’s the one thing you never got to do. You were kind of jealous of the NBA guys or the hockey guys that get to represent your country. But I will just caution them. I have played in two flag football games with real flag football people. Completely different game. And some of it’s just not detailed and you as a quarterback, you’re used to things being detailed. And then there’s another part of it where these dudes are just like, I don’t know, man. They’ve got breakdance moves when you go to grab that flag and you can’t grab it. It’s not tackle football. So to think that you’re just better because you’re good at NFL football, I don’t know that that’s necessarily true.
It’s a totally different game. To tackle somebody to the ground — form up, square up — it’s a lot different with the pads on, using violence, than trying to grab a flag when they’re swiveling their hips. And you basically need two quarterbacks out there, right? So they can throw it all over the place. The plays are different. I’m not really a big fan of flag football. I feel like it’s survival mode for the NFL. They’re thinking decades in advance. No thanks.
Hasselbeck: I think they’re onto something. I actually think something’s going to be really good. And I love how girls can get involved in this game a little bit easier because it’s not tackle football. So I’m excited about that. I think I’m a fan of it. When I played, Deion Sanders was on my team. Deion Sanders. Now, I know he’s not the young Deion Sanders, but it’s Deion Sanders. I don’t care. Willie McGinest. Some good talented dudes. I don’t know what the right word is, “pro” flag guys. They were better. They were better. It’s a different game.
What do you make of this quarterback draft class? Have you looked at Fernando Mendoza?
Hasselbeck: I know all the guys better as people than I do as players. But Fernando Mendoza, for me, checks all the boxes. I know there’s a little bit of hot-take shade that’s being thrown at him recently on the television. But I chalk that up to guys are running out of things to say and they want to have a hot take. I don’t think any of that’s real. I would hope it’s not real. Fernando Mendoza is amazing. He’s amazing. He’s so boring to talk about because yeah, he’s going to be the first pick. It’s not even up for debate. There’s really no one else they would consider taking first overall. It’s a done deal. So I think it’s almost boring for TV and talk radio. People are just coming with their hottest take and then it goes nuts on social media and then people are talking for hours about the take that I don’t even think people really believe. I think they’re full of garbage just trying to have a hot take. So no, Mendoza’s the first overall pick and he’s great. I didn’t know him until the Combine or maybe I met him at the Super Bowl. But really got to know him at the Combine. The Raiders are going to be really lucky to have him.
Our business model is really off at Go Long. What we have to do is think of something outlandish, put it out there, and then we can do three or four, five different podcast episodes, a feature, a column. String it along, right?
Hasselbeck: Well, that’s the new thing. Because listen, when I grew up, there were like three channels. And I remember when we got cable, I think I was in high school, so that was like the fourth channel essentially that I would watch. And it’s just so different now. There’s so much news out there. It’s hard to cut through. Back in the day, the idea in the media was try to enlighten people. Try to teach them. Try to share your expertise. And now I think it’s almost to just enrage them like: “What?! You said that. No way. I’m getting on Twitter and I’m going to say you’re an idiot and this is why!” And then it just goes viral that way. So I think that’s changed. Hopefully it changes back to something more meaningful.
But I will say just when it comes to the quarterback evaluation process, the mock drafts and how the rankings are, they’re never right. Go back year after year after year, they’re never right. And then also the other thing is that beauty’s in the eye of the beholder. How does this person fit into our team and where our team is right now?
Sam Darnold is an example. He just won the Super Bowl, but it wasn’t the right fit on the Jets at that time when he was not old enough to rent a car. So he didn’t have a lot of starts. Ty Simpson, I think is wildly talented and has huge upside. But he started like 15 games in college. That’s risky. I can’t draft him that high. Look at what’s happened in the past. I think it’s too risky to draft him that high. But could he be a first-rounder? Yeah, I think he could be a first-rounder. Hey, if the Seahawks are there at 32 and a team’s like, “Hey, we could trade back into the second. Somebody could trade up to get a first-round pick on Ty Simpson so they could have him for that fifth-year option,” well, it’s a quarterback. Quarterbacks don’t develop right away. That fifth year is really nice. It’s really nice to know. And there’s some teams that would love to have their fifth-year decision back on guys. And so there’s probably even an argument you might need six years on some of these guys.
I think back to my quarterback draft class. It was Peyton Manning, Ryan Leaf, and literally everyone was like, “I don’t know, pick it. They’re basically the same.” That’s what everyone thought. And even the rest of the draft that no one really ever talks about. But even there, that was a lot of difference of opinion. And so I get it. I totally get it. It’s not a science. And we in the NFL and people talk about it have done a very, very poor job at evaluating quarterbacks over the years.
You know Fernando Mendoza. You know the Raiders. I know you like that signing of Tyler Linderbaum. They had to pay a lot of money for him, but he can take a lot off a rookie’s plate. How is that fit for him? Because if you’re going to a team with the first overall pick, they have that pick for a reason. The Raiders had the worst roster in football. I like their signings, though. Even through the Maxx Crosby mess, you could have worse outcomes than welcoming back a hungry, relentless edge rusher in Maxx Crosby. Maybe this is a great spot for Mendoza to play early and play well.
Hasselbeck: Well, I think it is a great spot and I don’t think it was the worst roster in football. I think Geno Smith just had a very uncharacteristic ... I mean, he was unrecognizable to the guy we saw in Seattle. He led the league in turnovers. The whole thing was a disaster there. I’m not sure exactly what happened. They were getting rid of coordinators during the season. It was a bad deal.
So you think it was more on Geno than what was around Geno?
Hasselbeck: I think it was on everybody. But I’ll just say for Geno — as someone who’s sat in quarterback rooms a lot — part of what you have to do in quarterback rooms is you’ve got to just block out. Be the guy that didn’t write back. Just block it out. You’re moving forward and you’re laser-focused. And I saw the opposite of that out of Geno. Opposite. On and off the field. It was a different dude. Now maybe he recaptures that and learns from it in his second stint in New York.
But no, the Raiders can be a little bit better than ... they can be a lot better. They can be a lot better. But I would just say for Mendoza who grew up in Miami, grew up a diehard Patriots fan because of Tom Brady. Now, Tom Brady’s basically one of the top executives in that organization. That’s an intangible to me that if it goes well, could be really a great thing. Then you have Klint Kubiak as your head coach who every quarterback — you’re talking to every quarterback that used to play or still plays, they would love to be in that Mike Shanahan/Kyle Shanahan/McVay offense. Which really, when you say Mike Shanahan, you’re really saying Gary Kubiak. So it’s Mike Shanahan/Kyle Shanahan. It’s Gary Kubiak/Klint Kubiak. That’s the system. It’s a very quarterback-friendly lens that you’re seeing everything through. So you take what Mendoza is and has been, the coaching that he’s had, throw him in this system and there’s no expectations to win right away, I don’t think. But I do think that this is the Raiders. It’s like a premier franchise. You’re not going to just anywhere. The upside is so there.
I think it’s great. I don’t think this is a risky pick at all. And certainly you’ve seen some situations where guys were going to be the first pick overall and their people, their family, their agent, whoever, they were like, “Oh, you don’t want to go there.” That’s the furthest thing from the truth in this situation. I think this is probably where he would pick if he could pick a place. And here it is.
We saw him in big-time moments — through that playoff run — make plays with his arm, with his legs, change a program with Cignetti. All of that stuff has to matter. As much as one throw in one situation can get over-analyzed, that paralysis by analysis, what we saw with our eyes in real time probably matters 100 times more than all of that this draft season.
Hasselbeck: And the clutch factor, right? A lot of guys, it’s kind of like a golfer. There’s a lot of golfers out there that say, “I could have made that eagle putt.” Yeah, but you didn’t. Yeah, on the second try you did. But that’s not golf and that’s not quarterbacking either. You’ve got to make that throw with a dude in your face and you get one chance to do it. And you don’t know when it’s going to come up and you don’t know which throw it’s going to be. So yeah, I played with a lot of dudes and played against a lot of dudes that can do it in practice. But you’ve got to do it when the moment arises. And I think that’s the difference. And that’s where I think you kind of have this confidence in picking somebody so high when you have a larger sample size like Fernando Mendoza has.
The debate is always, “How soon is too soon for a rookie quarterback to play?” You can pull examples — Mahomes, Rodgers, and the guys who have sat — and see how it benefited them. Other guys are thrown into the fire. It’s not necessarily pretty, but it helps them. I don’t think I’ve heard anybody pinpoint this better than Matt Hasselbeck. It’s third-down pass protection. If you know what the hell is going on, third down when Brian Flores and all these D-coordinators are pulling out their best stuff, you’re ready. So what goes into that? And how difficult is it to master third-down pass protection in today’s NFL?
Hasselbeck: It’s the hardest thing and it’s the most important thing. And I can’t tell you how many coaches in quarterback rooms have said to me like, “Hey, you don’t get paid for what you do from the 20 to the 20. You get paid for what you do in the red zone and what you do on third down. That’s where you make your money. That’s why you make more money than everybody else.” Third down. That’s the game. And it’s protect the ball, but it’s also be aggressive and score. How do we do that? It’s being a Top Gun fighter pilot. You trust your training, you cut it loose. Yet at the same time, you’ve got to protect it. You’ve got to protect us. You’ve got to protect the plane, you’ve got to protect everybody. And that’s quarterbacking, and it’s not that simple.
But when you can master that — and do it with the play clock — that’s when I know that I can trust you to go play a football game. Like, a real football game. Now, are there people that could help me do that? Yes. A veteran center would be incredibly helpful. And that’s what the Raiders did. They haven’t drafted Fernando, but they went out and got Tyler Linderbaum from the Ravens. Perfect signing, perfect signing. Now, it would also help me to have a veteran running back who’s unbelievable in pass pro for third down. I don’t know that they have that locked down, but maybe they can get there. Maybe it is Ashton Jeanty. Maybe it’s somebody else, but that would help also.
Once you know as a coach that your young quarterback can handle that? Cut him loose, go give him reps. But if he can’t do that, he’s going to hurt himself, he’s going to hurt his teammates. And honestly, he’s probably going to hurt the pocketbook of the DBs that take the shot on the guy that you just laid out as a quarterback late down the middle or hot into a cloud corner or like something else. You’re going to get somebody hurt. So I don’t think it’s that difficult to know when a guy’s ready. You can put him in sample situations like that and in practice and just know like, “Yeah, he’s got it.” And you know when he doesn’t. And so that’s clear to me. I don’t think that’s a really hard thing to figure out. For some reason, people seem to have other criteria and it’s kind of like what their timeline says.
It’s got to be tempting as a coach, as an organization to dumb things down, make it very college-friendly. And it’s like a sugar high. A stick of Juicy Fruit gum. It’s going to be great for five seconds. And we see that a lot of times with young quarterbacks. They come in and they’re not asked to do a lot. It goes well. But eventually though, you’ve got to be able to handle everything that you’re detailing here.
Hasselbeck: I actually think what happens is different than that. I think what happens is they start out keeping it simple and they let the guys play fast and play free and it works. And then these coaches — we’re all guilty of it, anybody who’s coached — you try to prove how smart you are and you make it complicated and you slow the processor down in-between the ears of the quarterback. And his teammates. And you screw it up by doing too much. I promise you most of my career, like if I could point to one thing that would help me or the starting quarterback from Favre to Andrew Luck and everyone in-between, is if they would’ve just kept it a little more simple, for us, so that we could just cut it loose and play fast like we’ve been doing our whole life. But when we’re out there, we feel like we’re taking a final exam and kind of like, “Alright, do I do this? Do I do that?” Now, you’re making me feel like it’s my first time flying a 747. Instead of me feeling like I’m driving my car that I’ve been driving since I was 16 1/2 years old. And that’s like what I think really happens is these coaches, they brag about, “Oh, I slept here last night.” Doesn’t help us guys. It doesn’t help us. You might know more. But now we — the 11 of us — do we know more? I don’t know. I’m a proponent of keeping it simple and worrying more about us. Playing with great technique, great fundamentals, good decision-making. And I don’t care what you do as a defense. We’re going to do what we do better. College offense, high school offense, pro offense, it does not matter.
In my head, I’m thinking of Ben Johnson in Chicago: The standard is up here: The quarterback has to meet this standard. This is our offense. We’ll take the wristband off. We know what we’re working with, unlike the previous staff. And Caleb Williams was open to coaching. I think that he felt that pressure. Ben was going to run his offense.
Hasselbeck: That’s a great example you bring up. Because I mean, Ben Johnson is as well-respected of a playcaller as there is. The transformation and the improvement from Year 1 to Year 2 from Caleb was incredible. So that is a great example. Now, I could also say that the delay of games, the pre-snap penalties, there’s some of that stuff. So Ben Johnson was like, “No, screw it, man. Here’s the standard. If you hit it, you can stay as the quarterback here.” But if he hadn’t hit it, I don’t know that he had a future there in Chicago. I think that was part of the, “Hey, I’ve got one year to figure this out and then otherwise I’m going to go get my quarterback. I didn’t draft you.” That’s a real thing. It was a sink-or-swim for that quarterback and he swam. He produced. Mostly in two minute, end of the game. Mostly it was like, “Hey, this doesn’t look super great, and then wow. That was the best play of the year. Unbelievable. Incredible.
So, we’ll see in Year 3. The first three and a half quarters in a lot of those games, it was ugly. And then, at the end, it was Canton.
Hasselbeck: Listen, you can’t take away from them — the transformation. And like I said earlier about being clutch. You can’t coach that part. You can’t test for that at the Combine. And so he has that confidence. When he should not have confidence, he has confidence. And I think that breeds. It’s contagious. The teammates feel it. I think the opponent can feel it. He did very well. He passed that test with flying colors. So yeah, that’s an interesting one. Ben Johnson is as good as they come. For a young coach to have the success that he’s had, he’s McVay-ish to me.
And all of the other stuff that goes into it, too. Not just the X’s and O’s, not just designing an offense. He’s not afraid to make a statement. We’ve gotten into it at the site quite often, but leaning into Packers-Bears, leaning into the hate. You could see how they all feed off of that.
Hasselbeck: Again, I almost feel like this is those hot takes. I don’t think this is even real.
You don’t think that’s real at all?
Hasselbeck: I don’t think you hate the Packers. I think you respect the game and you’re a historian and you’re a smart guy. And it’d be like if this was Notre Dame-USC, you’re just leaning into it. It’s Red Sox-Yankees, it’s Celtics-Lakers. You’re just leaning into this because you’re the head coach of the Bears.
The good/better/best, the tearing off the shirt, the “F the Packers.” There’s something to all of that.
Hasselbeck: It’s great for ratings. You’re going to be on prime time. I don’t think he really hates the Packers. I don’t think he hates LaFleur. I think there’s mutual respect there. And literally at the league meetings, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if those two dudes were having a drink together, riding in a golf cart together. It just wouldn’t shock me.
I want to believe.
Hasselbeck: I feel like I’m talking about Santa Claus here or something. I won’t. My bad.
Last one for you. Is there a young quarterback in today’s game that you think is on the rise and could have a breakout season? You’re looking at this position through a different lens than most people. So who’s set to really ascend in 2026?
Hasselbeck: Yeah, it’s a great question. There’s a lot of guys I love their game. I mean, Drake Maye was a guy that — besides my brother — I don’t think there was a bigger Drake Maye fan than me when he was coming out. Everyone was hot on Caleb. I liked Jayden Daniels and I liked Drake. And I liked other guys also, but Drake Maye to me, if they can just protect for him, he’s as good as they come in every way. He’s everything you’re looking for. That’s an example of a guy that I just believe in all the way.
Let me think of a guy that no one gives respect to. I would say Brock Purdy. People don’t give respect to Brock Purdy the way he deserves respect. That dude is a baller and they love to use these other excuses, and I get it. He doesn’t have this physical dominating presence when you meet him. Literally, if someone told you he’s a college player or maybe even a high school player, you’d be like, “Oh, OK, maybe.” But he is as much of a baller as there is in the NFL when it comes to running the show as a quarterback. Touch factor. Technique. Accuracy. Mobility, Moxie. I don’t know why he doesn’t get the respect. I really don’t.
Great point. That Chicago game, Sunday night, late in the year, you can pull from a dozen plays that he made. But it was like watching the old arcade Frogger game, the way he moved up… then back… to the side… to the side… back again… and threw that touchdown. It was unbelievable.
Hasselbeck: And he’s got Mike Evans on. So Mike Evans, he’s on a good team with a good quarterback and he’s like, “You know what? I want to go win a Super Bowl.” He watches film all the time. What quarterback does he want to go play with? He wants to go play there. I don’t know if people remember this, but I think it was Week 18. The Seahawks who had already lost to the Niners, they went to San Fran and the winner is the one seed in the NFC. Literally homefield advantage goes through you — with all the injuries that the Niners had and with the great year that the Rams had and Stafford had, those were the two teams that were playing for the one seed. And the Seahawks dominate that game and they get the one seed. But the Niners, man, I know everyone’s talking about the Super Bowl next year and the NFC and they’re already talking about the Rams and they’re always talking about the Seahawks, but do not sleep on the Niners.
I just think Purdy’s that good. They’ll get healthy. They’ll be better against the run. All the stuff that was their kryptonite, I wouldn’t count them out.
Mike Evans is really perfect for that offense as a backside weapon.
Hasselbeck: And that’s what it is. They call it a “gift.” So when it’s 1-on-1 backside, you’ve got your Kyle Shanahan concept to the other side. And any time they leave him 1 on 1, that’s just a gift. We’ll take it. His job’s to beat his guy. Your job is just to throw the ball accurately. Just about every quarterback in the NFL can do that on a consistent basis. But you need that guy. And so, every team that’s really killing it right now has that kind of guy: a JSN, a Puka, or Davante Adams sometimes. So you have that 1-on-1 guy where it’s like, “If we get him, especially in the red zone…” that’s what Mike Evans has done for his whole career.
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Ditto! Love reading the transcript!
Greatly appreciate transcripts!