The day is here. The time is now. The NFL draft has arrived. That plus more on Thursday's

edition of the Locked on Raiders podcast for April 23rd, 2026. You are Locked on Raiders. Your daily

Las Vegas Raiders podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

And welcome here, Raider Nation, to another edition of the Lockdown Raiders podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your number one sports podcast network, of course, we're very proud of that. We're also very proud of the fact that this show continues to grow each and every day, and that's because of your support and the great job that my man Ari does behind the scenes each and every day by way of the YouTube page. We shout him out.

We appreciate him.

You want to hit him up on Twitter.

You can. He's at Ari Produces. You can hit me up as well at your boy Q254. And if you want to be a part of the show, we've got the Lockdown Raider podcast, voicemail line for you. 707-654-4693. We'll hear from you as we close up the shows we normally do, calls, text, a lot of great feedback.

We'll do that as we close things out.

Segment number two. 4-6-9-3. We'll hear from you as we close up the shows we normally do, calls, text,

a lot of great feedback. We'll do that as we close things out. Segment number two, going to focus in on a player not named Fernando Mendoza that I think would make sense for the Silver and Black. You know, there's a bunch of different players that we've all identified that, hey, these could be a perfect raider. I think this guy could definitely be a perfect rider. He's actually here in Pittsburgh. Hint, hint, you've heard me talk about him many times. We'll talk about him in segment number two. You'll hear from him in segment number two as I had an opportunity to catch up with him on Wednesday at the community event here in Pittsburgh. So you hear from that player that I think makes sense for the Raiders coming up segment number two. Here is segment number one news and notes of the day and it really only has

to do with Fernando Mendoza, right? We've been talking, talking, talking, waiting to get to this moment.

The time is now. The Raiders have the number one overall pick and it's only going to be eight minutes

from the moment that Roger Goodell says the Las Vegas Raiders are now on the clock. They only have eight minutes to turn in the card. And I don't think they're going to need eight seconds to turn in their card, but I'm sure they're going to go ahead and exhausted and let the eight minutes run out to make it a little bit better for theater. I know there'll be a little bit of anxiety when it comes to Raider Nation because, well, as much as we all believe that Fernando Mendoza is going to be the guy until we actually hear Roger Goodell say quarterback Fernando Mendoza, Indiana, then, you know, there's always a chance that maybe it's not. But I'm 99.99% sure that Fernando Mendoza is going to be the guy, but that's what's the beauty of this. I'll be so happy when I don't have to say 99.9%. I'll be happy when I can say 100%. Without a doubt, Fernando Mendoza is the Raiders quarterback. Now, again, I fully believe that that's going to be what's going to happen, but I promise

you after his name is announced, I'm going to get a bunch of text messages, I'm going to get a bunch of tweets, I'm going to get some emails and say, Q, we did it, Q, we did it, Q, we did it. Fernando's our guy. We got our guy. I promise you, that's what's going to happen. And that's just the excitement of Raider Nation, knowing that the franchise quarterback is, is going to be in the mix. And he's a guy that the Raiders have been looking for ever since they sat down Derek Carr. They never had a succession plan. When they decided they were going to sit them down, they didn't know what direction they were going to go. And they had a terrible season at 2025. They earned the number one overall pick,

and now they have an opportunity to get their franchise quarterback.

And getting that quarterback will give everybody hope.

No matter who you talk to, no matter what team it is,

when I talk to people that covered the commanders,

when they got Jayden Daniels, they got hope with that quarterback.

Bears, they got hope with Caleb Williams, Bryce Young in Carolina, they got jaden Daniels they got hope with that quarterback bears they got hope

with caleb williams bryce young in carolina they got hope like every time a team gets a

quarterback at that top spot or the top two top three whatever the case may be that guy that

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