The NFL’s No. 1 Rookie Lets AI Plan His Meals and His Naps

Fernando Mendoza has a professional nutrition staff, elite performance coaches, and access to one of the most advanced training facilities in football.

He also asks artificial intelligence whether he should eat an Uncrustables or applesauce before practice.

The 22-year-old quarterback enters the 2026 NFL season as the No. 1 overall draft pick and the future of the Las Vegas Raiders. His four-year rookie contract is worth nearly $60 million, but his daily routine still includes questions familiar to anyone who has opened the refrigerator and wondered what counts as a responsible meal.

The difference is that Mendoza does not simply guess. He asks ChatGPT!

AI does not draw up the Raiders’ offense or decide when Mendoza will replace veteran Kirk Cousins. It does, however, help the rookie manage his meals, choose restaurant food, and determine how long he should nap before a night game.

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The Raiders Provide the Plan—AI Helps Him Follow It

Mendoza is not allowing a chatbot to invent his diet from scratch.

The Raiders’ nutrition staff created the meal plan. AI becomes useful when he is away from the team facility and needs to make choices without a nutritionist standing nearby.

His normal breakfast includes a four-egg omelet and half an avocado. Lunch and dinner generally contain fruit, vegetables, a portion of carbohydrates, and between eight and 10 ounces of protein. His protein-shake intake changes depending on his weight and physical demands.

That structure is easy to follow inside the Raiders’ facility, where appropriate food is prepared and available.

Real life is less organized.

Players travel. They eat at restaurants. They get hungry between scheduled meals. Sometimes they are standing in front of two snacks and need to decide whether applesauce is more useful than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich sealed inside a circular pocket of bread.

That is where Mendoza uses AI.

In an interview about his diet and rookie routine, Mendoza explained that ChatGPT helps him choose foods that fit the plan supplied by the Raiders. He can include what he has already eaten, how his weight is changing, the Las Vegas weather, and his preference to avoid too much dairy.

It is less “robot nutritionist” and more digital assistant carrying a very detailed grocery list.

His Diet Has Room for Tacos

For someone with such a carefully managed routine, Mendoza’s favorite food is reassuringly normal.

Tacos.

His reasoning is difficult to dispute. There can be fish tacos, beef tacos, and breakfast tacos. He even left room for an occasional Choco Taco, proving that becoming the first pick in the NFL Draft does not require abandoning joy completely.

Candy, however, is largely off the menu.

Mendoza avoids heavily processed sweets during the week but does not treat dessert like a criminal offence. He follows a moderation-based approach, allowing himself a few bites after games before returning to a more disciplined routine.

A small amount of dessert is acceptable.

A giant ice cream sundae apparently triggers the philosophical question: What exactly are we doing here?

That may be the most relatable nutritional standard ever applied to a multimillion-dollar quarterback.

AI Also Helps Decide When He Should Sleep

Food is only part of Mendoza’s digital routine.

NFL games can begin in the afternoon, at night, or in entirely different time zones. A badly timed nap can leave a player refreshed, groggy, or staring at the ceiling at 2 a.m. while mentally replaying third down.

When Mendoza needs immediate guidance, he can ask AI how long to sleep before a game without waking up disoriented.

It is a small detail and less glamorous detail than learning a new offense, but quarterback performance depends on hundreds of small decisions. Nutrition, hydration, sleep and recovery can all influence how clearly a player thinks when a 280-pound defender is heading toward him.

Mendoza’s use of AI reflects a broader change in elite sports. Players now have access to more performance data than previous generations could have imagined. Their sleep, movement, food intake, and workload can be measured throughout the week.

AI gives Mendoza another way to organize that information when the team’s specialists are not immediately available.

The machine does not replace the experts. It helps him remember and apply their instructions.

This Is Not His First “ChatGPT” Connection

Mendoza had already earned comparisons to AI before openly discussing his digital meal planning.

His calm, carefully structured answers led some fans to joke that he sounded like ChatGPT during interviews. Mendoza explained that his communication style came from speech classes, reading and studying leadership—not from being secretly assembled inside a computer lab.

The comparison is funny because quarterbacks are increasingly expected to behave like advanced processors.

They receive information before the snap, identify the defense, recall a complicated play, anticipate movement, and make a decision in seconds. Then they stand before reporters and explain everything without saying anything that will appear on the opposing team’s bulletin board.

Mendoza’s organized personality made the robotic jokes easy.

His genuine use of ChatGPT makes them almost too perfect.

The No. 1 Pick Will Begin by Watching

Despite being selected first overall, Mendoza is not expected to start the Raiders’ opening game against the Miami Dolphins.

That job belongs to Kirk Cousins.

For a player accustomed to leading his team, beginning the season as a backup presents a different challenge. Mendoza must prepare as if he will play while accepting that he may spend the afternoon holding a tablet on the sideline.

He has approached that responsibility with the same methodical mindset he brings to nutrition.

Mendoza studies Cousins, reviews practice film, and visualizes each play. He mentally works through covered receivers, defensive movement, checkdowns, and situations that might require changing the call.

The process is designed to ensure that his first real opportunity does not feel completely new.

There is no AI shortcut for reading an NFL defense. Mendoza still has to study, practice, and prove he can perform under pressure.

The technology simply helps keep the rest of his life organized while he waits.

A Very 2026 NFL Rookie Story

Mendoza’s path to the NFL already had everything required of a traditional football story.

He won the Heisman Trophy, led Indiana to a national championship, and became the first player selected in the draft. Instead of attending the draft ceremony, he celebrated with his family in Miami, making the occasion more accessible for his mother, Elsa, who has multiple sclerosis.

Now his rookie story includes something unmistakably modern: an AI assistant that helps him choose lunch and calculate the perfect nap.

Previous generations of quarterbacks carried notebooks and memorized meal plans. Mendoza can carry a nutrition staff’s guidelines in his pocket and ask follow-up questions whenever life becomes less predictable.

Perhaps that is what makes his routine interesting. The No. 1 pick is not asking AI to turn him into a great quarterback. He is using it to handle the ordinary decisions surrounding the extraordinary job.

The Raiders will still judge him by completions, touchdowns, and victories.

But before Mendoza becomes the face of the franchise, he may need to answer the most urgent question of his rookie season:

Uncrustable or applesauce?