Charles Davis and Daniel Jeremiah gave us ‘First Take’ in the seventh round and it was perfect

Nobody told Charles Davis the 2026 NFL Draft was almost over.

Deep in the seventh round — well past the point where most casual viewers had checked out and moved on with their Saturday evening — Davis and Daniel Jeremiah turned the 221st overall pick into the most entertaining television of the entire weekend. All it took was four minutes, one quarterback, and two analysts who clearly disagree about how the Las Vegas Raiders plan to handle Fernando Mendoza.

The debate itself wasn’t exactly new. Ever since the Raiders used the No. 1 overall pick on the Indiana quarterback, there have been questions about when Mendoza will actually take over for Kirk Cousins. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the expectation is that Cousins is expected to mentor Mendoza and will enter training camp as the presumed starter.

Davis, who was pulling double duty as CBS’s lead college football analyst and an NFL Network contributor on the newly ESPN-owned broadcast, had heard the Raiders’ party line and wasn’t interested. He’d seen this movie before. Teams take a first-round quarterback, give the veteran a vote of confidence speech, and somewhere around Week 3, the rookie is under center anyway.

The exceptions — Patrick Mahomes and Carson Palmer — Davis argued, only proved the rule.

Daniel Jeremiah thought that was an oversimplification, and he was not shy about saying so.

Tom Brady, he noted, had spent the previous two years during his foray into sports media arguing the NFL fails young quarterbacks by rushing them into situations they aren’t ready for. And Brady had lived that experience himself, thrust into the lineup only because Mo Lewis hit Drew Bledsoe so hard he nearly died. That wasn’t a carefully considered development plan.

The Raiders, Jeremiah argued, are actually operating with one. Klint Kubiak is a brand-new head coach who just arrived. The organization is in the middle of a significant rebuild. And Kirk Cousins, for all the criticism that follows him everywhere, is a four-time Pro Bowl quarterback who has thrown for over 30,000 yards in this league. He is not some seat-warmer to be discarded.

“He is NOT going to start right away,” Jeremiah said. “I promise you.”

“Disagree all you want,” Davis shot back. “And I’ll take your money.”

After several minutes of Jeremiah insisting Mendoza would sit and Davis insisting he would play, they were asked to put specific projections on it. Jeremiah, the man who had just promised Mendoza wasn’t going anywhere near the starting lineup in any hurry, predicted the rookie would make seven starts this season. Davis went with twelve, minimum. They’d spent four minutes arguing like the gap between their positions was the Grand Canyon, and when forced to put numbers on it, the difference was five games.

“I mean, jeez, Charles,” Jeremiah said. “The way you were talking, you’d think he was going to start the first day of minicamp. And now you’re already giving five weeks to Kirk Cousins after you just said no chance?”

“What an oversell!” Jeremiah said.

“Oh, please,” Davis shot back. “You oversold that one! ‘He is NOT going to rush him!'”

Rapoport, who wanted to chime in with his own reporting, had seen enough to render a verdict.

“Who would’ve thought,” Rapoport said, “that this synergy would bring us First Take here in the seventh round of the draft?”

Nobody would have thought that. But here we are. The Fernando Mendoza quarterback timeline debate will be settled sometime before Thanksgiving, probably sooner if Davis is right. In the meantime, it produced the best television of the entire 2026 NFL Draft, right there at the very end, right when everyone had already stopped paying attention.

“Charles Davis late in the draft,” Rich Eisen offered, “is my favorite Charles Davis.”

It’s hard to argue with that.