{"id":52331,"date":"2026-08-25T09:12:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T13:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=52331"},"modified":"2026-08-25T09:12:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T13:12:04","slug":"kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"Kirk Cousins, Fernando Mendoza Find Common Ground in Christian Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Raiders \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Las Vegas Raiders quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza may be at opposite ends of their NFL journeys, but the two are already finding common ground in more than football.<\/p>\n

Cousins, 38, joined Las Vegas this offseason for his 15th NFL season, while Mendoza entered the league as the Raiders’ No. 1 overall draft pick and expected quarterback of the future. Despite the natural competition that comes with sharing a quarterback room, Cousins says the relationship has quickly become strong.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a great working relationship,” Cousins told Fox News Digital. “The quarterback room is at its best when everyone’s pulling together, helping one another, and we’re all working as a force together to help all of us get better at our craft.”<\/p>\n

Cousins entered training camp ahead of Mendoza on the depth chart, with head coach Klint Kubiak saying the veteran has had a strong camp and that the starting job is “his job to lose.” But Cousins said Mendoza has approached his rookie season with a willingness to learn rather than focusing on when he might take over.<\/p>\n

“He’s a good question asker,” Cousins said, adding that Mendoza has “a great sense of urgency” that should serve him well at the NFL level.<\/p>\n

The learning has gone both ways. Cousins said Mendoza has impressed his fellow quarterbacks with his ability to throw back-shoulder passes, prompting Cousins and Aidan O’Connell to ask the rookie what he sees in those situations.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the strongest connection between Cousins and Mendoza has developed away from the playbook.<\/p>\n

Both quarterbacks are outspoken Christians, and Cousins said faith became part of their conversations almost immediately. Mendoza even asked Cousins whether he had found a church after moving to Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Cousins, who has frequently spoken about his Christian faith throughout his NFL career, said having something bigger than football to lean on is especially important in a sport filled with uncertainty.<\/p>\n

“Being able to have an anchor that’s bigger than just our football success, it’s truly building your life on a sturdy foundation when you build it on your faith and not on the success of your football career, which is going to go up and down like a roller-coaster,” Cousins said.<\/p>\n

That perspective could be particularly meaningful for Mendoza, whose mother has faced serious health challenges. Cousins said personal struggles can weigh on players when they arrive at work, making their shared faith another source of connection.<\/p>\n

For now, Cousins has no intention of simply stepping aside for the highly touted rookie. He remains focused on leading the Raiders and rewarding the confidence of those who believe he can still perform at a high level.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s important for me to prove people right,” Cousins said, pointing to those who believe he still has “something left in the tank.”<\/p>\n

Mendoza’s opportunity will eventually come. Until then, he has a veteran quarterback beside him who understands the pressures of the position \u2014 and shares his belief that neither wins nor losses should be the foundation on which a life is built.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Las Vegas Raiders quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza may be at opposite ends of their NFL journeys, but the two are already finding common ground in more than football. Cousins, 38, joined Las Vegas this offseason for his 15th NFL season, while Mendoza entered the league as the Raiders’ No. 1 overall draft pick…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":52334,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nKirk Cousins, Fernando Mendoza Find Common Ground in Christian Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kirk Cousins opens up about his relationship with Raiders rookie Fernando Mendoza and how their shared Christian faith brings them together.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kirk Cousins, Fernando Mendoza Find Common Ground in Christian Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kirk Cousins opens up about his relationship with Raiders rookie Fernando Mendoza and how their shared Christian faith brings them together.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-25T13:12:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/08\/Cousins-Mendoza_credit-Raiders-YouTube.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beliefnet Contributors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kirk Cousins, Fernando Mendoza Find Common Ground in Christian Faith","description":"Kirk Cousins opens up about his relationship with Raiders rookie Fernando Mendoza and how their shared Christian faith brings them together.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kirk Cousins, Fernando Mendoza Find Common Ground in Christian Faith","og_description":"Kirk Cousins opens up about his relationship with Raiders rookie Fernando Mendoza and how their shared Christian faith brings them together.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2026-08-25T13:12:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/08\/Cousins-Mendoza_credit-Raiders-YouTube.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Beliefnet Contributors","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith.html","name":"Kirk Cousins, Fernando Mendoza Find Common Ground in Christian Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/08\/Cousins-Mendoza_credit-Raiders-YouTube.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-25T13:12:04+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-25T13:12:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"Kirk Cousins opens up about his relationship with Raiders rookie Fernando Mendoza and how their shared Christian faith brings them together.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/08\/Cousins-Mendoza_credit-Raiders-YouTube.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/08\/Cousins-Mendoza_credit-Raiders-YouTube.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Raiders \/ YouTube"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/08\/kirk-cousins-fernando-mendoza-find-common-ground-in-christian-faith.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kirk Cousins, Fernando Mendoza Find Common Ground in Christian Faith"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","caption":"Brandy Grenier"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52337,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52331\/revisions\/52337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}