Tom Krasovic: Raiders’ decision to shelve star helps their chances of landing franchise QB

It appears Tom Brady did his Raiders job well this week.

The team’s best player, Maxx Crosby, won’t suit up Sunday in Las Vegas when, wonder of wonders, a loss against the Giants (2-13) would greatly help the Raiders (2-13) get the top pick in the next NFL draft.

Selecting Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, 22, in April would improve the Raiders’ long-term potential and even more so if a trade-up isn’t needed.

For sure, Pete Carroll had a good week on the Mendoza front.

The Raiders’ coach finessed Crosby off the gameday roster Friday, with ESPN reporting a day later the star will need offseason knee surgery.

Carroll said the decision to shut down Crosby was for the player’s “betterment.” It seems the response by Crosby, a fourth-round draftee who’s made himself into a five-time Pro Bowler, was as prickly as nearby cacti in the Mojave desert. Carroll said he spoke four times with the player. Crosby, in reply, made it known he’d like to leave the facility. Carroll allowed it, then addressed reporters.

“I agree with him 1,000% on how he responded,” the coach said, “and I (would have) responded in the same way.”

The Giants made adjustments this week, too.

They shelved their best blocker, Andrew Thomas, among other starters.

If the Giants get the No. 1 pick, they’d likely try to swap it for a top-10 chip and other picks. The club just used three premium picks to get quarterback Jaxson Dart, 22.

Brady, who bought a 5% stake in the Raiders 14 months ago, has said he serves as a sounding board to Carroll, rookie general manager John Spytek and owner Mark Davis.

Two weeks ago in this space, I urged Brady to improve the odds of getting Mendoza by encouraging Raiders staff to hold out a few banged-up starters.

Lo and behold, with the Giants looming, the Raiders announced nagging injuries had ended the seasons of tight end Brock Bowers and safety Jeremy Chinn, the offense’s best player and a 15-game defensive starter, respectively. Two days later, Carroll announced Crosby wouldn’t face the Giants, who will start a rookie at left tackle.

Though all three Raiders starters had nagging injuries, each one saw heavy duty last Sunday. The Raiders lost 23-21 to a Texans team that’s much better than the Giants.

As a quarterback, Brady’s zeal for winning each game was extreme.

Who else among NFL stars goes to sleep by 9 o’clock every night, as Brady claimed he did for much of his career?

As a strategist in the ownership realm, Brady is required to see a bigger picture.

The Raiders lack a franchise quarterback. If they find one in the draft, they’ll reap a large extra reward of not having to pay him as much as an established veteran commands over several years.

Several NFL teams, including Carroll’s Seahawks with QB Russell Wilson and Bill Belichick’s Patriots with Brady, rode that surplus-value train to multiple Super Bowls.

No incoming QB should be compared to Brady. Nor does Mendoza belong in the “cyborg” category that Daniel Jeremiah, the former NFL scout, reserves for QBs who make freakish NFL plays, such as AFC stars Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson and this year’s version of Trevor Lawrence.

Mendoza appears a legitimate prospect to earn and retain an NFL starting job if he builds upon his sharp improvement at mental processing over the past several months. He gets above-average grades for his size (6-foot-5, 225 pounds), accuracy on back-shoulder and run-pass-option throws, and leadership. This year, in his first season with Indiana after two seasons with Cal, the Miami native led the Hoosiers (13-0) to wins over Oregon and Ohio State and the top seed in the national playoffs, becoming an improbable Heisman Trophy winner.

Oregon’s Dante Moore, 20, will also interest several NFL teams if he applies for the next draft.

The contest between the Raiders and Giants matches two teams riding nine-game losing streaks and two quarterbacks having uneven seasons. For Dart, being overly competitive is a problem. He’s taken far too many hard hits as a rusher. The Raiders’ Geno Smith, 35, returned from injury last week and showed improvement.

The Raiders will finish the season against a Chiefs team that’s on its third QB.

For the seven-time NFL champion Brady, his first full season with the Raiders has served him a new taste of the NFL life. He’s gone from champagne to something like vinegar forced down his gullet. The offense was so bad through 11 games, Carroll fired coordinator Chip Kelly in November, less than a year after hiring him. He has witnessed a Raiders offense that sits dead last in points and first downs.

Here’s guessing the GOAT realizes that, having endured this much losing, it would be best to lean into more of it, while envisioning Mendoza, or perhaps Moore, in silver and black.