With the first overall pick in this year's NFL draft, the Las Vegas Raiders selected Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.

After leading the Hoosiers to a perfect season and their first National Championship, the Heisman Trophy winner is now the latest source of hope for a suffering Silver and Black fan base that hasn't seen a playoff win in more than two decades.

Here to explain what Mendoza could mean for the franchise entering its seventh season in Las Vegas is John Tournour, better known as JT the Brick, host of Raider Nation Radio.

JT, welcome to Nevada Week.

-Amber, great to see you.

Thanks for having me.

-You described the first day of this draft as, quote, what should be one of the most important days in Raider history in Vegas.

Why?

(John Tournour) It has to be, because Mendoza is a game changer.

The Raiders-- You don't get the number one pick often.

And when you do, coming off last season, you got to nail it.

And being around this gentleman and his family for a couple of days here in Vegas, he's the real deal.

So the Raiders now have an opportunity to have the player at the most important position who can turn things around, hopefully quickly.

A lot of people now have a different look: Let's take our time.

Let's get it right.

But with Brock Bowers, Ashton Jeanty, and Fernando Mendoza--I know we'll get to Maxx Crosby--there's a big three or four now within this organization.

And every great team in the NFL has three or four stars, and the Raiders have three new young ones on rookie contracts.

So the time is now.

-What about that offensive line?

Last season it was hard to watch Geno Smith take all that punishment.

He didn't get much protection up front.

What kind of danger is Fernando Mendoza going to be in if he's playing?

-Great question.

They got Tyler Linderbaum, the center from Baltimore, and they paid him big money to come in here.

So he's going to change everything.

He's going to be the anchor.

Kolton Miller is coming back at left tackle.

Jackson Powers-Johnson, who I think now with the right coaching, an upgrade on the offensive line, is going to be really good.

And then, Amber, they drafted a bunch of offensive linemen over the last two years, and they just need one of them to start out of four or five.

So I think they're going to be much improved.

But as you pointed out, last year was difficult.

Geno didn't have a chance.

Ashton Jeanty didn't have much of a chance.

The play caller got fired.

The head coach got let go.

So last year, everything that could go wrong went wrong.

That's why this off-season was so important, because the Raiders brought in, in free agency, seven new starters before the draft.

And I'm predicting in the draft they probably got at least three to four potential new starters.

Those are 10 players overall that should change everything.

-So new head coach in Klint Kubiak, coming off the Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks team.

How does he combine with Fernando Mendoza?

-He's a great play caller.

He's very cerebral.

He's very low-key, and I just think he's going to build plays for Mendoza, which will be his strength-- a short passing game, the ability to explode.

But the key will be getting the running game going, because the Raiders are only going to be good if they can run the football at the point of attack.

And that's Ashton Jeanty, who I think is going to be a superstar in this league.

So it's a great question, because if the offensive line improves quickly and drastically, then the Raiders can get going.

Think about the Raiders on 3rd and 4 or 3rd and 5, where they don't have to hurry up at the line of scrimmage, maybe change the play.

They can hand it off on 3rd down and pick up a 1st down.

How about on 1st and 10?

They can hand it off for 11 yards.

I think this is going to be about ball control in the Mendoza era.

And it might be Kirk Cousins who ends up starting, because they brought him in, and he knows this Kubiak playbook better than anybody.

His best three years in the league with Minnesota were with Klint Kubiak, so he's very familiar as we get Fernando Mendoza up to speed.

-How soon could we see Fernando Mendoza start?

-Well, that's the big question.

I mean, a lot of people-- Normally, when you take a No.

1 pick overall, traditionally, he starts Week 1.

That's how it goes.

You can go back to all the great quarterbacks.

But here's a different scenario: The Raiders had the first pick.

They struggled so much on the offensive line.

You'd like to see that offensive line play a few games with Cousins to prove that they can protect him.

Now, what I think is going to happen if Cousins does start and he wins a couple of games, he'll stay.

If he doesn't win a couple of games quickly, you can go to Mendoza and do it there.

But if Mendoza is great in the off-season and in the preseason at camp, whoever is the better player is going to play, because the Raiders want to win now.

-Okay.

So Rob Rang of Fox Sports said Mendoza is "an ideal schematic and personality match for Las Vegas."

Why personality match?

-I've been doing, this is coming up almost on 30 years for me.

I've never seen a player who cared more about his mom, his family, than this guy.

And I've interviewed all of them.

He says everything right.

He's always prepared.

And I think we're looking for that type of leader-- cerebral, a guy who's very calm, but a guy who has a big personality inside the huddle.

He's the ultimate teammate.

And a lot of times, as you know, a quarterback when they're drafted number one has got a big personality.

They might be outgoing.

They might be a little bit cocky.

He's toned down.

He cares more about doing this correctly.

And we saw, when he transferred from Cal Berkeley and went to Indiana, nobody thought he'd win the Heisman Trophy, win the National Championship in Indiana with Ohio State and Michigan and, let alone, have a perfect season, the first quarterback ever to do that with the Heisman in the modern era during a college football playoff.

So I think he's "patient," is the word I would use.

He's not going to be a diva, telling everybody in the off-season, I need to start.

He's going to listen to his coaches.

He's going to listen to everyone involved.

And most importantly, he's going to listen to his family.

I met his mom and dad, and they build a wall around his mom, who, as you know, has MS and she's in a wheelchair.

And I never saw anything like this in my entire life, that the brothers, the two younger brothers, Fernando, and his father surround his mother and take care of her.

And you see a family dynamic which is going to be perfect with the Raider family as he comes to town.

-So then there must have been at some point this clean break from the Raiders of the '70s, you know, the real rough around the edges.

Because when I'm hearing a personality match for Las Vegas, I'm thinking, you know, Kenny Stabler, for example, or back to Jim Otto and like, that kind of Raider.

But this is a different time.

-Yeah, this is a different time.

I spent last weekend with Fred Biletnikoff and a lot of the legends who were here in town, and the Raiders of the '70s were probably the greatest Raiders of all time.

They were the mavericks; they were a bit wild.

They had a lot of fun, but they always won.

And they played hard, and they were great teammates.

The way I look at Fernando Mendoza is I would look at him like Jim Plunkett.

Jim Plunkett was drafted No.

1 overall, won the Heisman.

But Jim had a big struggle when he came into the league with New England.

He got beat up, and he really struggled and then moved to the 49ers.

And Al Davis brought him to the Raiders and said, I don't need you right now.

You need to rest and heal.

And then when he needed him, he put him in.

And Jim Plunkett won two Super Bowls, a Super Bowl MVP.

So I'm telling everyone, when you look at Fernando, think of the great Jim Plunkett, who was very patient with his career and went on to an iconic career.

But I think Fernando is going to have the opportunity to really turn this city around because of his leadership and his poise.

-And he's going to be wearing the Jersey No.

15-- -Amazing.

- --of Tom Flores, the former Raiders quarterback.

How did that come to be?

-Well, he wore it in college.

And when you look at 15 overall, it's really important.

The first quarterback for the Raiders was Tom Flores, and the franchise began in 1960.

And Coach Flores, who's with us, is really proud of this.

And this is a great connection, Latino, the connection to Plunkett and Flores.

And I can tell you this from the inside: That jersey is moving.

I'm going to get you one.

Get it now over at The Raider Image.

Everyone in the Raider Nation is buying that 15 jersey, and he's going to have to prove it.

He's going to have to prove that he can live up to that legacy of the great Tom Flores, one of the greatest Raiders of all time.

-Yeah.

I saw a headline the other day, "How to get a Fernando Mendoza Jersey in Las Vegas," as if it's a struggle.

It's a hard thing to do right now.

-You're gonna have to get in line.

You know me; we'll get you one.

But it's important.

If you can go online... The Raiders really care about their image, right?

Their uniform is iconic with the silver and black.

A lot of teams want to change their uniform and have all these different styles.

Mr.

Davis, before Mark Davis, wanted to stick with the silver and black.

It's often copied.

You see NBA teams now wearing silver and black.

It's an iconic jersey, and that Raider jersey is going to fly off the shelves.

You got Maxx Crosby, Brock Bowers, Ashton Jeanty, Fernando.

So I think when you go to Allegiant Stadium this year, you're going to see a lot more home Raider jerseys in the crowd.

-You bring up Al Davis, Mark Davis.

There is now a succession plan in place for the Raiders, which I guess had to happen because Mark Davis has no children.

He's in his early 70s.

So what is the plan?

-Well, the NFL has a plan of succession.

Mark's time was now to give his plan.

So there's some new owners, Egon Durban, Michael Meldman.

We have some really good--Tom Brady, as you know.

They're minority owners, but Mark is the majority owner of the team.

So he's just putting his business in order.

Normally, I don't comment much on people's trust or personal trust in what they're doing, but Mark's the owner of the Raiders, and he just wanted to set it up for the future, in case he decides to move on.

But from talking to Mark, Mark has never been more passionate about winning now.

He's done so much for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, so much for the alumni.

He brought the Raiders to Vegas and what that's done for the rest of the owners and the amount of money they're making and the high profile of the Raiders in Vegas with the Super Bowl here--it'll be two times that we're having the Super Bowl coming up here in three years--the Pro Bowl.

So everything that Mark's done with his legacy, there's one big finishing point, and he's going to be here a long time, is to win a Super Bowl.

So with his succession plan and what he's going to do privately, that's up to him, as you bring up, but he's got a lot of unfinished business.

-And he also has done a lot for the Las Vegas Aces.

We're going to be talking about them coming up.

You brought up how the Raiders in Las Vegas, the NFL in Las Vegas, has impacted other owners.

Can you elaborate on that, because I know the Raiders' value has gone up as a team, how much they're worth, but you're saying the rest of the league has benefited as well?

-Yes, because all the owners get appreciation on the value of the league and their team.

So every ownership group has made--I don't want to predict--billions or hundreds of millions of dollars on this move to Vegas, because it just raised the tide.

To have a team here, the amount of infrastructure it brought to the NFL financially is incredible.

I mean, we wanted to stay in Oakland.

The plan was always to stay in Oakland.

The Raider's hand was forced to come here, and it's turned out.

I woke up today, and I looked on my Facebook memories.

Ten years ago today, the Las Vegas Review-Journal had the cover story about the Raiders and talk, coming to Vegas.

And now, after all these seasons here, I think the owners appreciate what Mark's done now, because this is a global city of sports and entertainment.

We're getting the Final Four because of Allegiant Stadium.

We're getting the National Championship in college football.

None of that happens out at Sam Boyd Stadium.

None of that happens without Allegiant Stadium.

So part of Mark's legacy, along with others who brought the team here, is going to be Allegiant Stadium being the number one stadium in the world for revenue, and on top of that, bringing more sporting events here.

And in regards to the NFL and your question, it's making a lot of money for the other owners.

-Okay.

So it's making money for a lot of other people.

-Yes.

-Is it benefiting the Raiders?

How has it worked out for the Raiders, this move to Las Vegas?

-Well, it's benefited the Raiders because they have more cash flow and they have a lot more money coming in to spend on players.

Now you got to get it right with the players.

If you don't have the right players and the right coaching, as we've seen in the last couple of years, nothing's going to change.

There are too many opposing fans coming to our stadium because they love our stadium and they want to see their team.

Imagine you could-- -And they want to come to Vegas.

-Yeah.

Imagine if you can come see the Buffalo Bills and you had to choose between Denver, Kansas City, Detroit, or Jacksonville, and you wanted to save your money to go to one place.

It would be Las Vegas.

And I think that tide is going to turn when the Raiders are winning consistently.

And I think in the next two to three years, the Raiders will be a perennial playoff team, and you'll see more of a split of Raider fans compared to opposing fans because-- Look, everyone's welcome in Vegas.

I say this all the time.

We we know what our airport tourism is like.

We know what our casino corridor is like.

People want to see football at Allegiant Stadium.

We just need more Raider fans than opposing fans, and that's happening.

-All right.

JT the Brick, thank you for getting us excited about the Raiders upcoming season.

-Thank you.

-Thank you for joining Nevada Week.

-Thank you.