Preseason winners and losers: Rams add depth as Fernando Mendoza slips in the pecking order

The 2026 NFL regular season is here, and with it comes the immediate realization that “initial” rosters are not the final word. Teams across the league locked in their first 53-man cuts Sunday, but between Week 1 and that deadline to make September feel real, every club typically stays active through waiver claims, free agent additions, injury designations, and occasional trades.

In a preseason winners-and-losers look, CBS Sports framed that churn as a key divider between teams that look built for the full range of game-day scenarios and players who may be asked to absorb more uncertainty. The column specifically elevated the Rams, describing their offseason work as strengthening the team’s Super Bowl candidacy.

The Rams storyline, as characterized in the CBS roundup, is less about one headline move and more about momentum as training camp moved toward the opening kickoff. The author’s framing suggests that Los Angeles’s roster construction gives it more options to handle injuries, matchup shifts, and late-game execution, which is the kind of “depth logic” that separates contenders from the rest once the schedule starts producing real data.

On the other side, Fernando Mendoza is listed among the preseason losers, falling behind in the context of the competition that plays out once rosters are formalized. In other words, Mendoza is not portrayed as simply failing to make the team. Instead, the concern in the roundup is that the next phase of the season could place him in a more reactive role, where opportunities arrive later or less consistently than they did earlier in camp.

That distinction matters because the preseason to regular-season transition can be unforgiving. Even when a player makes the roster, usage and visibility do not always arrive on schedule. With roster tweaks still available after the initial 53-man deadline, the depth chart can keep changing, particularly for fringe contributors and players whose skill sets require a narrow set of circumstances to show up in box scores.

The broader league context also sets expectations for how quickly teams can alter the balance. CBS Sports noted that there were 15 trades on Sunday alone, a reminder that the NFL’s opening-week environment is not static. That kind of activity can force organizations to recalibrate who fits best across multiple roles, and it can compress the window for players like Mendoza to establish themselves in a stable routine.

What to watch next is the actual flow of personnel decisions once Week 1 approaches: whether the Rams maintain the cohesion the column credits them with, and whether Mendoza’s reps and role solidify or continue to drift as the league makes its customary early-season adjustments. The preseason’s “winners” are not guaranteed to stay ahead, but the early-season roster realities typically determine whose depth plan survives first contact with the regular schedule.