Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins and defensive end Maxx Crosby were kept out of team drills on Saturday after a fight in practice a day earlier, forcing the club to change its camp plan and hand Fernando Mendoza his first chance to run the starting offense.
The shift mattered immediately because Mendoza, working with Cousins sidelined, threw touchdown passes to Brock Bowers, Michael Mayer and Tre Tucker. He also had some misfires against the starting defense, but he showed enough escape ability when pressure arrived to find open receivers and keep the offense moving.
Klint Kubiak did not leave much room for doubt about why the decision was made. “We have very clear expectations about how we want to practice, how you go about our business,” he said. “We violated that yesterday, so we held those guys out.” He added that the team had already addressed the issue and was moving on, while declining to expand on the confrontation.
That left a friction point the Raiders still had to manage: saying the matter was over did not erase the need to keep Cousins and Crosby away from team work after they had to be separated by teammates on Friday. Cousins was upset after Crosby tipped his pass and forced an incompletion, then charged at him. The club’s response showed that even in camp, there are limits to how quickly a fight can be brushed aside.
The Raiders were off on Sunday before returning Monday morning, and Kubiak hoped Cousins and Crosby would be back competing again without punches. Mendoza’s snap count Saturday offered a small preview of the depth chart’s next layer, but the larger question is whether the two veterans simply return to practice or face more restrictions after a fight that already changed the week’s work.
The altercation came during the Raiders’ NFL football training camp in Henderson, Nev. Cousins is 37, while Crosby is listed at 6-foot-5 and 256 pounds. Mendoza, who was first overall after winning the Heisman Trophy at Indiana, was the beneficiary when the confrontation pushed the offense into a different shape for a day.
