First, they have a solid draft. Now, they cut JaMarcus Russell. What's next? A defeat of San Diego? A winning season? A head coach who sticks around for three seasons?
All I know is that the Raiders are beginning to act like a responsible football franchise determined to make itself better -- and no, that is not a misprint. They're making all the right moves, and hallelujah. It's about time.
Analysis
Pete PriscoRussell's release cements the former No. 1 pick as the biggest draft bust, for now. Read more
Ray Ratto
Oakland releases the former No. 1 pick, a move that saves the Raiders $6.45 million. Will the Raiders do something productive with that sum? Read more
Links
Raiders cut ties with Russell
SI.com: Releasing Russell right move
The release of Russell is the clearest signal yet that Oakland is serious about junking another 5-11 finish and returning to the major leagues. The club sank $61 million in the guy -- including $31.5 million in guaranteed money -- and was understandably reluctant to walk away from its investment.
But it did it, and it did it for the right reasons: Because Russell flat-out stunk and was holding the team back.But you don't need me to tell you that. If you watched Russell for one nanosecond last season, you could've drawn the same conclusion. He was so bad that he couldn't complete half of his passes, had nearly four times as many interceptions (11) as touchdown passes (3) and was benched in midseason by a courageous Tom Cable.
"I think it's pretty clear what he has to do," Cable said then. "He has to learn how to take care of business on a daily basis consistently and prepare himself and take care of his development as a quarterback."
He never did. So the Raiders got tired of waiting and cut the guy. Well, hear, hear. They're a better team for it.
Bad enough that Russell established himself as a remarkably inaccurate passer, with more overpasses and underpasses than the Nimitz Freeway; what's worse is that he didn't seem to care, with myriad reports circulating about his weight problems, his laziness and his reluctance to improve himself.
I don't doubt that he has talent, but it takes more than talent to make it in the bigs, and Ryan Leaf, come on down. Until Russell came along, Leaf was the poster boy for first-round flops. Like Russell he was talented. Like Russell, he was designated "the quarterback of the future." Like Russell, he was a gazillion-dollar investment. But like Russell, he was undisciplined and scattered.
Which meant he was
The difference is that the Chargers didn't make Leaf the first pick in the draft nor the first quarterback in the draft. Russell was both, and it took three years for the Raiders -- just as it did San Diego with Leaf -- to realize they'd been duped.
He couldn't win. He wouldn't learn. He couldn't complete a freakin' pass. And he couldn't or wouldn't stay in shape. Connect the dots, people -- it's easy to see where that gets you.
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Nevertheless, it takes guts to admit a $61 million mistake after only three years. But the Raiders swallowed their pride and poise and did just that. They understood what everyone outside the 510 area code did, and that's that Russell can't play at this level -- or, at least, not the way he was playing with Oakland.
To say he struggled is an understatement. The guy was the Venus De Milo of quarterbacks and never showed improvement. In fact, he got worse with time, floundering after the Raiders surrounded him with experienced quarterback tutors like Ted Tollner and Paul Hackett.
Bottom line: He was a lost cause. And the Raiders finally acknowledged it.
In reality, they acknowledged it when they traded last month for quarterback Jason Campbell, making him the fifth quarterback on their roster. Somebody had to go, and Russell was the logical choice.
Only it would take owner Al Davis admitting he was wrong when he made Russell the first pick of the 2007 draft, and that couldn't have been easy -- especially after he made Russell a mega-millionaire. Yet he did it, and bravo for him.
If you believe in addition-by-subtraction you believe in what the Raiders just did. Russell wasn't going to make them better, and he could have made them worse. Now, he no longer is a temptation, a distraction or a subject for discussion, derision or debate on a franchise that is 29-83 over the last seven years.
He's simply gone, and good riddance.
Yeah, I know he can throw the ball a mile, but I don't care. It doesn't matter when you can't tell which jersey you're throwing to. I don't care that his skill set had him rated at the top of his quarterback class, either. I don't even care that the Raiders paid him a fortune the size of Liechtenstein's gross national product. Russell never, ever, ever was going to make it as an NFL quarterback.
The Raiders know it now, and they should have known it a year ago when Cable went rogue and benched Russell in favor of Bruce Gradkowski and Charlie Frye. In four starts, Gradkowski threw twice as many touchdown passes as Russell did in nine and produced as many victories (two). Basically, he was a better quarterback. So was Frye. And the Raiders were better with them.
Now they're better off without Russell, and let's hear it for the Oakland Raiders. It took them three years to wake up to the nightmare that was Russell, and do what they absolutely, positively had to do.
But they did it. It is better
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