NFL NOTES

Head coach Klint Kubiak cleared the air on Monday with a strong commitment to keeping Kirk Cousins as the starter despite Las Vegas losing for the fourth consecutive week on Sunday, 35-21, to the Rams.

Kubiak opened the door to speculation when he said Sunday night in response to a question about No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza getting into the lineup that the Raiders would “look at everything.”

The tune changed Monday

“(Cousins) is playing at a very high level, and he’s got to continue to do that for us to win,” Kubiak said. “We got to keep helping all the areas around him. Excited for him to go play against the Jets.”

After a 3-0 start, the Raiders have been plagued by familiar issues. But Cousins is first in the NFL with 16 TD passes and ranks third in the league with 1,877 passing yards.

“I think at this point, we’re thinking about everything,” Kubiak said Sunday night. “How to fix our problems, how to fix our issues in the red zone, in the third quarter. Personnel, scheme, we’ve got to talk about all of it.”

Cousins completed 26 of 44 passes for 295 yards and two touchdowns Sunday and his performance wasn’t entirely detrimental to the Raiders. Las Vegas was 3-of-14 on third downs and scored a touchdown on one of five trips to the red zone.

“It’s really the same every day that it was in March or April,” Cousins said when asked about ceding the position to Mendoza. “Nothing changes in the sense that, if I’m not the best option, then I don’t want to be out there either. The first OTA, if that had become apparent, I would have been the first one to say, ‘Yeah, you can’t play me.’

“So nothing changes. The organization will do what they feel is best. I feel that Fernando’s done a great job and has a bright future ahead, and I’m going to try to go out there and play as well as I possibly can, help us win, and give him a great example to learn from until he does go out there eventually.”

Mendoza has completed 6 of 8 passes for 48 yards, all in mop up duty at New England on Oct. 11.

Drafted first overall in April, Mendoza was the Heisman Trophy winner and led Indiana to the national championship in 2025. But he’s been QB2 most of his stint in Las Vegas.

Kubiak and general manager John Spytek made it clear Cousins, 38, would begin the 2026 season as the Raiders’ starter.

Not executing in the red zone was the main issue that left Kubiak miffed on Sunday.

“It comes down to we have to make plays down there when we have our one-on-one opportunities,” Kubiak said. “Got to make the throws, got to make the catches. Didn’t happen.”

Colts’ Steichen not considering benching QB

Colts coach Shane Steichen once again told reporters Monday that Daniel Jones will remain Indianapolis' quarterback for the team's game at Jacksonville this week.

Steichen said after the Colts' 16-10 loss to Minnesota on Sunday to fall to 2-5 that he had previously given no consideration to a change at QB.

"He knows he's got to play better," Steichen told reporters Monday. "He's proven that he can do it. So that's where the confidence comes from. And we need to get him back playing to that level that he was last year. It's taking a little bit longer."

Jones completed 68% of his passes for 3,101 yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions in 13 games last season, his first with the Colts, before tearing his Achilles.

This season, he's completing a career-low 59.6% of his passes for 1,398 yards with four touchdowns and seven interceptions -- one off the NFL lead. He has one TD and four interceptions in Indianapolis' last four games.

Jones, 29, was the sixth overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. He's thrown for 19,081 yards, 93 TDs and 62 picks over 90 career games for the Giants (2019-24) and Colts.

Anthony Richardson Sr., Indianapolis' fourth overall pick in the 2023 draft, is the team's backup QB. He's appeared in 17 games (15 starts) and completed 50.6% of his passes for 2,400 yards, 11 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

Packers safety rips refs after loss to Lions

Green Bay Packers All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney didn't mince words when describing the officiating after Sunday's 20-17 loss to the Detroit Lions.

"I don't know how the NFL's going to treat it, but I'm not a big fan of the refs right now," McKinney said. "I don't think it's great officiating, if I'm being completely honest. I think it's bulls-- a lot of the times."

McKinney took issue with a pair of roughing the passer penalties, as well as an unnecessary roughness call on defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt for what was deemed as a late hit on wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. That play gave the Lions a first down and they scored a touchdown two plays later.

"It's annoying even talking about it because these are critical drives throughout the game, and we might have a drive where we're getting stops but you're calling penalties and it's like, this is not a penalty," McKinney said. "To me, it just (doesn't) really make any sense, and it's killing our momentum, it's killing our drives, and it's kind of f--ing up the games, if I'm being honest."

McKinney, 28, said he wasn't concerned if the NFL takes issue with his comments and levies a fine.

"They gonna fine you for anything at this point in this league, so I would rather get fined and try to help my team out because I see what is going on and I see it's killing us," he said. "We all see it. We all see what's going on. Everyone sees what's going on, the fans see what's going on, we see what's going on when we're out there."

Ex-Cowboys star says police aimed gun at him

Former Dallas Cowboys star Dez Bryant says a police officer pointed a gun at him in front of his daughters during a weekend incident in Southlake, Texas.

In an interview with Outkick, Bryant said he got into a confrontation outside a restaurant on Sunday with two other drivers who he said had been driving recklessly and had cut him off in traffic.

Bryant said one of the men threatened him and seemed to "insinuate" that "he'll shoot me or whatever." Instead of a gun, Bryant said the man pulled out a cellphone and began recording the interaction.

"I told him, you know, get the phone off me," Bryant told Outkick. "So what I ended up doing is I knocked the phone out of his hand."

A police officer arrived and ordered all three men to get on the ground. A video posted on X by Outkick shows police standing over three men who are handcuffed and facedown in a parking lot.

Bryant said he received a citation for assault by contact and instructions to appear at Southlake Municipal Court on or before Nov. 20.

"I was really more so concerned about my children, you know, looking at their dad, you know, being on the ground with a gun pointed at me," Bryant said.

Bryant, 37, was a three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver with the Cowboys from 2010-17 and finished his career with the Baltimore Ravens in 2020.

BRIEFLY

SEAHAWKS: The "early returns are positive" surrounding the knee injury that Seattle wide receiver Rashid Shaheed sustained on Sunday night, coach Mike Macdonald said in a radio interview on 93.3 KJR on Monday. The news is reportedly a bit worse for left tackle Charles Cross, who is expected to miss time with a high ankle sprain he sustained Sunday night, per an NFL Network report.

VIKINGS: Minnesota running back Aaron Jones avoided a significant knee injury on Sunday and is considered day-to-day, ESPN reported Monday. Jones aggravated a left knee injury during the fourth quarter of the unbeaten Vikings' home victory against the Indianapolis Colts. Jones sprained his left MCL in Week 2 against the Chicago Bears but has not missed a game.

PATRIOTS: New England is releasing veteran punter Bryce Baringer, multiple outlets reported on Monday. Baringer has been on injured reserve since the start of the season but reportedly is now ready to return. Mitch Wishnowsky is expected to continue handling the punting duties.