Could Fernando Mendoza be the answer at quarterback for the Jets?
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza celebrates after defeating the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2025 Big Ten Football Championship at Lucas Oil Stadium on Dec. 06, in Indianapolis. Credit: Getty Images/Michael Reaves
Jackson Sirmon, the second-year practice squad linebacker for the Jets, was watching the Big Ten Championship game last weekend and there, on his television, was the two-star true freshman who used to run the scout team when they were at Cal: Fernando Mendoza.
If he had any trouble reconciling those memories with the quarterback who is now the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, could lead Indiana to a National Championship, and may even be the first player taken in April’s NFL Draft, those difficulties disappeared when he saw Mendoza’s interviews before and after the game. The goofy wide grin, the aw-shucks humility, and the borderline phony positivity? That was unmistakably him.
“You get this overwhelming feeling, like, is he acting? Because he seems so happy and so enthusiastic,” Sirmon told Newsday of his former teammate this week. “But he had the same energy on scout team. It was almost to the point where we’d be laughing on defense because of how much energy he had. … It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”
If he threw an interception, Mendoza would yell: “Great play, defense!” If there was a good run, he’d shout: “Keep going! That was a great look!”
Pretty soon Sirmon and everyone at Cal came to a realization. It’s the same one the folks at Indiana landed on fairly quickly, too. And now the rest of the country is getting a taste of it.
If there was an award for the most earnest and sincere player in college football, Mendoza would not win it this year, it would be named after him.
“All the energy you see is completely authentic,” Sirmon said. “He’s a very genuine person.”
There is no doubt he has the talent and skill to play in the NFL. Some of the throws he has made for the Hoosiers have left pro scouts drooling. There are parts of his game he’ll need to work on like consistency and decision-making, but that’s true for nearly everyone who comes into the league.
He’s certainly an intriguing option for the Jets, a team that needs a quarterback next season and may use some of the picks they accumulated from dealing away Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams this season to trade up and grab him.
But as his transition from college to the NFL starts to take shape, there is one big question teams will have to answer about him.
Will that personality play in a pro locker room? Could it play in New York?
Can he become Broadway (Fernan)do for the Jets?
Sirmon, who has been in town for two seasons and whose father, Peter, played in the NFL and currently coaches with the Saints, knows about that dynamic. He wasn’t sure.
“I have no idea,” he said. “It’s always hard to know those kinds of things. But I know that when he gets his opportunity he’ll attack it with everything he has. I think people will respect his energy and how hard he works and his passion for the game. I wouldn’t bet against him.”
It’s not impossible for those kinds of vibes to find success at the top level. Listening to Mendoza speak at Friday’s media availability for the Heisman in Manhattan, he sounded like a much taller version of Russell Wilson, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback currently the third-stringer for the Giants with the perpetually rosy outlook. And there are others who have managed to thrive while maintaining their innocence and optimism, too. Eli Manning still looks and acts and drawls as if he just got off the Greyhound.
Still, it felt like Mendoza’s lack of edge was out of place in Times Square. Even the tourists on line to get into the M&M Store across the street thought him a bit too sweet.
Mendoza tried to downplay that rube-ness by discussing his roots in the city he kept calling “the Big Apple”… as all real New Yorkers do. He recalled the time he visited here when he was 13 with his brother and grandfather and they saw “Jersey Boys” then overslept and missed the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
“I’ve always loved New York City,” he said on this, his second venture in it.
As for potentially beginning his NFL career here, he didn’t bite at any of the questions about ties with the Jets.
“A couple of my friends will send me stuff ‘Look how cool this is!’” he said of the building draft momentum. “Hopefully [getting drafted] is a reality, but right now I am committed to the Indiana Hoosiers and I want to play my heart out in those games.”
He did acknowledge the differences that await him.
“The NFL is a whole different level,” he said. “It’s a more intricate system, a more intricate game. The margins get smaller. The windows get tighter. The players are better, they are older. They are grown men. These aren’t college kids anymore. ... Hopefully one day I can accomplish my pipe dream of playing in the NFL.”
Mendoza will be here through the weekend, including Saturday night’s Heisman presentation. He said if he does win the trophy he’ll hand it to his mom, who is wheelchair-bound and has multiple sclerosis, because he thinks she’s earned it more than he has. Then, he’ll bring it back to Bloomington to put in the locker room so his teammates can get to enjoy it.
If he doesn’t win it?
“However it goes I’m going to be leaving New York City, the Big Apple, with a huge smile on my face,” he said.
If he comes back here a third time in April, not as a sightseer but as the next best hope for a Jets franchise that hasn’t hit on a quarterback in over 60 years, he’ll undoubtedly still have that authentically wide grin, too.
Then we’ll see how long it and he can last.
And if he ever gets to be part of a parade on Broadway.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
