Top prospect Fernando Mendoza shows off trademark accuracy at Indiana Pro Day

Mendoza didn’t run or perform any of the other testing drills, but he did weigh in at a very sturdy 236 pounds — 11 pounds more than he weighed at the combine just over a month ago. That’s quite notable when you consider how late Indiana’s season ended, with the Hoosier’s National Championship victory over Miami on Jan. 19, with Mendoza having a shorter window to prepare for the draft.

It appears that Mendoza isn’t only preparing for the draft but also for his rookie season in the NFL and the yearlong grind that comes with being a highly drafted quarterback.

“A lot of trainers, a lot of coaches talk about the rookie wall. That once you finish playing January 19, you go straight into training and you go all the way to next February, hopefully,” Mendoza told Lewis after the workout. “But … I love football. I’ve never burnt out. I’m never going to hit a rookie wall.”

Mendoza said he rested for a week after the Miami game and then buckled up for the long haul.

“In early February, (I started) training, lifting, running. All those things are fun to me and I find great pride and satisfaction in those activities anyways,” he said. “… There was a little bit of an itch to get back. But part of performing is also resting, so I had a very calculated rest regimen.”

The workload and added weight didn’t appear to hinder him. Following a protracted warmup that saw Mendoza getting loose with dozens of throws, he was ready to go. Mendoza appeared to stick closely to his 56-throw script, which relied heavily early on shorter timing throws, to nine different receivers.

Once the action began, Mendoza threw with excellent tempo and pace. He completed his first 23 throws before WR E.J. Williams let a slant pass glance off his hands. About halfway through his script, Mendoza had arguably his one off-target pass, which was a slight overthrow on a “go” route. The only other ball that hit the John Mellencamp Pavillion turf was another drop, this one by TE Riley Nowakowski.

There were a handful of deeper attempts that were arguably underthrown, but it was an impressive display of accuracy nonetheless. NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah was impressed with the effort.

“To me, there were three things he accomplished today,” Jeremiah said. “No. 1, he showed up. That’s pretty much what he needed to do. No. 2, he’s in phenomenal shape. You really can tell he’s added that weight, (he’s) close to 240 pounds. And No. 3, he threw the ball as well as you saw him throw it on tape

“(There was) a lot more under center, so you got to see some of that as well. If you had objectives in this thing, I think those were the three and he accomplished all three.”

Mendoza’s accuracy — even in the sterilized environment of a pro day — stood out to NFL Network’s Bucky Brooks.

“I love the fact that the ball was consistently in the strike zone,” Brooks said. “We talk about in these workouts when you don’t have a defense on the field, you don’t necessarily want to see the ball on the ground, but more importantly, I want to see it consistently on the facemask. He did that and he delivered a bunch of different ranges, a bunch of different throws.

“Touch, timing, anticipation — he did all that. It’s exactly what you want to see in a pro day workout.”

Now we wait to find out if the Raiders agree.