Raiders ‘Hopeful' Rookie Jermod McCoy Can Play in 2026 Despite Knee Injury
The Las Vegas Raiders have opened their rookie minicamp, and all eyes are locked on quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
The Raiders selected Mendoza, the reigning Heisman winner who led Indiana to its first national championship, with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft on April 23. Mendoza’s arrival in Las Vegas was telegraphed for at least four months, so it surprised precisely no one.
Now, the conversation pivots to whether Mendoza will start as a rookie and, more substantially, whether Mendoza will be the franchise savior.
Due respect to Derek Carr, the Raiders have been in the quarterback wilderness since Rich Gannon led them on three straight playoff runs, including a Super Bowl XXXVII appearance in January 2003. The Raiders’ last playoff win came with Gannon under center in the 2003 AFC Championship Game.
Quarterback is king, but believe it or not, there’s a more interesting conversation to be had about the Raiders’ 2026 season.
The Raiders selected former Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy at the top of the fourth round (No. 101 overall). McCoy has first-round talent, but he slid due to injury concerns. McCoy missed the entire 2025 season with a torn ACL, but that isn’t what caused his slide to the fourth round.
“He has a bone plug, which was basically a piece of bone and cartilage used to repair a degenerative cartilage issue in that same knee, and now there is a thought process amongst doctors that this is gonna now have to be replaced again,” Yahoo! Sports senior reporter Charles Robinson reported during the draft. “Maybe not immediately, but at some point in the future.”
After the Raiders drafted him, McCoy told reporters, “As another surgery and all that, that would just be strictly based on what the team wants me to do.”
It seems the team wants him to play.
“Raiders emerged from the draft optimistic that McCoy can play this season,” ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler wrote on X on Saturday. “Team will continue to evaluate his progress at the facility and see how things go. But it's hopeful.”
McCoy is participating in rookie minicamp, so that’s good in the short term, but the long-term health of his knee is the concern.
“I had one team tell me that if there’s a severe slip [in the draft], it’s because there are some teams that are taking the position that if this next surgery, which would likely knock him out for the entirety of a year, if this next surgery is not successful, it will effectively end his career,” Robinson additionally reported.
But if McCoy’s knee holds up, it’s firmly on the board that the Raiders had a franchise-altering player land in their laps when the NFL world reflects on the 2026 draft class years from now.
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This story was originally published May 2, 2026 at 1:50 PM.