The Oakland Raiders offense is off to a horrifically bad start. They have only managed a total of three touchdowns in four games, with none of them coming in the past two games. They have by far the worst passing game in the league, and the running game is not much better. If the Raiders want to avoid yet another lost season, they have to take bold action. At this point, sitting JaMarcus Russell is the move that makes the most sense for the health of the franchise going forward both in the short term, and in the long term.
(AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)
Russell's struggles this season have been well documented, yet the team doesn't seem willing to push him to get better. To add fuel to the flame, it has been reported that Russell has been fined for being overweight, being late to meetings and practice, as well as missing meetings.
In yesterday's press conference offered a classic non-denial denial of that report. "I'm not gonna talk about our internal stuff that way." Translation, "That's true, but I saw how Lane Kiffin was run out of town on a rail last year for telling the truth."
This is beyond a concern, and has become a full fledged problem. By nature of his position and contract, Russell is supposed to be the leader of that offense. By blowing off meetings, and apparently not putting in the work to live up to the team's standards, he is giving off the aura of "I don't care." That aura rubs off on his teammates.
Coach Cable conceded that there is no leadership on offense, "The reason I'm OK with [Defensive end Greg Ellis telling the offense to 'play with heart'] is that until the offense finds their leaders, who those guys are going to be, I think you're leadership's gotta come from anywhere on this football team. Not just your coaches. Whether it's Lechler doing it, he's a very valuable guy on this team. Greg is very valuable, very well-respected, so I don't know that it really matters where it comes from. The thing that matters is that it happens."
What matters is that the sixty million dollar face of the franchise is not showing up for meetings, nor providing any leadership. However, Cable had this assessment of Russell, "He was on target all but really two throws. When you have that many drops - I think there were nine that I counted - if you put nine completions or at least the opportunity of nine completions on his deal, you'd say he might have been as good as anybody in pro football yesterday. If you know what you're looking at."
When Rich Gannon was leading the Raiders to three division championships, he was always the first one in the building and the last one to leave, so that he knew that he was outworking his opponents and it showed in his ability to lead the team to wins, as well as bring home a league MVP trophy, despite not having nearly the physical abilities that Russell was blessed with.
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Playing the "if only" card is not the stuff upon which championships are built. If the drops are truly the problem, then why is last year's leading receiver Johnnie Lee Higgins not getting any action on offense? Cable says that he is not fully back from the injury, but he had only one ball thrown to him in the opening game, and that was the play where he got hurt as Russell led him right into a defender. Javon Walker has a history of being a Pro Bowl receiver, but he has only been active for one game, and in that one on the field for maybe three plays with no balls thrown his direction.
For the good of this team, it is time to send a message and bench JaMarcus Russell. Cable spent training camp talking about playing as a team and getting their minds right. That is a lesson that Russell has apparently yet to learn. First and foremost, a leader leads by example, as Gannon did.
At this point, benching Russell would have a two-fold effect on the team. First, and most importantly, it would show whether or not Russell had that 'it' that all of the great quarterbacks have. If Russell has that 'it' he would take a benching as a challenge, and work his butt off to get his starting job back and prove that he can be the one. However, if his response would be to sulk and not change anything, then it would be obvious that it would be time to move on with a new quarterback.
The second benefit would be it would be an undeniable signal to the entire roster that there was no individual who was above the team. It would put every single player that if they didn't bring it every day in practice and in the game that they could be next. Instead, as it stands, that accountability does not exist.
To see the benefits of benching a former first round quarterback, one need not look any further than the other side of the bay, where 2006 first overall pick Alex Smith is on the bench behind Shaun Hill. The Niners have stepped beyond the bust of Smith and are one piece of Brett Favre magic away from being 4-0.
That's not to say that benching Russell, would have the Raiders instantly in the playoff hunt, because that is not likely. However, it would show that the Raiders are serious about having the long rumored "commitment to excellence," and were willing to do whatever it takes to "just win, baby."
You can also find Patrick Patterson on Thoughts from the Dark Side.
Comments
NO WAY! Jamarcus is our quarterback. We need to build a good team around him. Provide some legit weapons, provide some pass protection and improve this lack-luster running game. He's no Matt Ryan, he's taking longer than he should to understand what it takes to win in this league, but we need to give him more time.
I don't know about you guys, but I'm willing to win or lose with JaMarcus for now. Have some faith Raider Nation...
JaMarcus needs to be jarred somehow. If that somehow is benching him than fine bench him. I watched his demeanor when he walks off the field, and I've never seen any emotion come from his face. He has a lot of "I don't care" about him. You don't see him walk around and talk to his receivers about dropped passes. He seems very lazy.
@RaiderPride666
Jesus Christ are you freaking kidding me its his third year in the NFL when is he going to get better his 4th, no it must be in his 5th,.....wait cant be maybe his 6th i mean come on stop making excuses for him no TD's in back to back games is bullsh!t im all for backing up our QB but Russell stinks no TD's in the NFL mean's this team is on the fast track to no-where if our team wants to compete in the AFC WEST or have a winning season we need to bench Russell and start Gradkowski and PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, for christ sakes start J.Walker Or Higgins we need a Vet WR out there cause Murphy cant do this all by himself DHB is dropping pass’s all over the field bench him too
GO RAIDERS!!!!
Its both the inexperience in the wr's and the inconcistency in russell.Lets face it we're playing w 2 rookie wr's. what we should be worrying about is wasting a 7th round draft pick on DHB.the guy hasnt done anything!!he cant even catch a ball!! HE'S A WR THAT CANT CATCH A BALL!!!!thats a huge problem.my goodness.do you see percy harvin or jeremy maclin dropping footballs?did you see desean jackson dropping balls last yr? no,although they are not counted on to be a savior to a team, they are making big plays.and DHB hasnt.how many rookie wr's are counted on to save a team? none.louis murphy has potential, he's filling in quite nicely, and dont forget chaz schilens and johnnie lee higgins should be back soon and that will be a great boost to our offense and great help for russell.you cant totally blame russell its only 40% his fault.some of those throws should be alot better.some of those footballs need to be thrown away alot sooner.benching him now would do nothing.
(cont'd) lets wait till these injured players get back, throw in some javon walker, and i bet russell looks a little better.if you throw in gradkowski now whats going to be the difference? its going to be the same rookie wr's w the same wr's issues...the running game aint much to brag about these days either..and how about the defense,what happened to that performance against s.d. that had us all happy? the raiders need to do alot more than to sit russell. its going to start w al davis hiring a gm. until that happens, expect the same results from this team. GO RAIDERS!!!
Are you kidding me?! Jamarcus Russel is just BAD! Three years in the league, does what he wants and doesn't know or have the want to win! Coach Cable is a BAD head coach and it shows on game day.
Everyone is so focused on Russel like he is the only player on the field. When will this team get better? When will management get better? When will coaching get better? I am not letting Russel off the hook but to think replacing him will make this a good football team is insane. They don't block, on defense they hand tackle, no blitz packages, 4 man basic rush, special teams....well whats special teams? I mean come on two rookie WRs starting? Name one team in the league that would be that stupid. I am a Raiders Fan but I am a "real football fan first." This is a terrible team from management to the water boy.
The sad part is all the Raiders fans on the blog thinking Russel is the main cause of a terrible franchise that was going down the tubes way before Russel got here. Every player that leaves this franchise is well off. The Raiders can not develop star players they buy them after other teams have groomed them. That has been their formula for years.
In all honesty Matt Ryan started with a better franchise and team.
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NO WAY! Jamarcus is our quarterback. We need to build a good team around him. Provide some legit weapons, provide some pass protection and improve this lack-luster running game. He's no Matt Ryan, he's taking longer than he should to understand what it takes to win in this league, but we need to give him more time.
I don't know about you guys, but I'm willing to win or lose with JaMarcus for now. Have some faith Raider Nation...
If we keep Russell in there then we can't expect much, but he needs to show constant improvement. If Chaz Schilens comes back this week then I say keep Russell in. He will have Schilens, Murphy and Miller to throw at. 3 good receivers he should be comfortable with. If he can't do any better with his go to guy back then he has to go. Last chance to show up. Also put Higgins or Walker in and try a professional core of receivers for once.
Win Lose or Tie I'm a RAIDER til I die! . . However, I'm also realistic. Al Davis will never allow Cable to bench Jamarcus (during the season at least) with all that money he's collecting. Although the recievers looked better when Grad-whats-his-name was on the field in the preseason and for the couple of passes he threw against Kansas City, benching Russell would mean Al admitting defeat. You know he's not about to do that. HOWEVER, I seem to remember a time when a backup would come off the bench and take us, oh, say, TO THE SUPERBOWL!! TWICE!! Fill up the ice chests, sit back and drown your sorrows. We're in for another long year. RAIDERS TIL I DIE!!
Try proof-reading before publishing an article
Raaaiiiddderrrrrssssss!!!
Bench him. Until this steaming pile of a QB understands that the night before the game is a bad time to get your drink on, sit his tubby behind down. He cares more about those big girlie ear rings than being a pro.
He sucks, and until he grows the hell up, he'll continue to suck. Period.
there no way in hell that Al is goingto bench JR.. hopefully now that RDC is gone Michael Bush can run the ball better we all new as raider fans we werent going to the playoffs be realistic.. but regardless JR does have to benched Gradsomething was a started in the league at one point i think he can at least manage the game better than JR
All you idiots keep hanging on to your cup of Davis kool aid.
RUSSELL SUCKS PERIOD!!! But is Grad. the answer? A Bandaide?
Cable is an O-Line coach not a Coord. or Head.
Higgins or any of the WR are NOT "professional WR" as one of you posted.
I cant beleive you people call yourselves fans and real football fans but continue to drink the kool aide and make excuses for this poor excuse of a football team the last 7 yrs. I dont even put it on most of the players and more on the coaches and front office. But JAMARCUS SUCKS and DHB does too but I will give him time to UNSUCK!!!
We need a new Head Coach with his own O-Coord.
Trade for whatever other teams backup QB they want. David Carr? S.Rosenfels?
Get a D.Coord. that has a real blitz package. with the talent we have a CB we can play one on one and get pressure on the QB.
Teach the LBs how to tackle! They are very fast!! No Doubt but what good is speed if you dont tackle.
And finally get some frikin O-LINEMAN
dose everyone forget this is really his second year as a starter. since his first he was on the bench most of the year and a hold out till after the first game. i mean i know it hurts watching this team right now. i know from watchin the game sunday that his wide outs droped easily 9 pass's. along with 3 to 4 had to been thrown away to avoid the sack. im not tryin to make excuses for the guy but that inflats his numbers to look bad. last time i checked this none spellin wanna be writer turns out some sorry articales and this just adds to it with his fan insight. its easy for all of us to say lets get another qb but if a line dosent block dosent matter who the qb is.
Your efforts and words are always worthless pat. How anyone has let you publish anything is a mystery, you are so lame in all aspects to your life and a half-assed psuedo journalist to boot. Still, JR should be benched. Everything else you say is toilet paper.
Take a look at the 1990 Cowboys. Aikmans second Year with Emmitt, irvin, Novachek. Aikman went 4-18 in His first 22 games, (worst then Russell).
Oh, but You say He never had a game as bad as Russell has played.
Hmmmmm, what about week 6 when they played the (5-11) Cardinals. Lost 20-3, outgained 100yds to 414yds. Aikman was 9-25-61yds-0-2int. Ouch. And that wasn't His worst game.
We need to see this thru. 24yr QB, 22yr RB, 23yr wr's, 25yr TE. I am not saying it going to work, but if we start benching players I garantee it wont work.
Are you (Lee Turner) saying that Russell is going to be Troy Aikman. If you actually watched this dude(plus reports of fines no leadership etc.) I'm thinking more like Ryan Leaf. If we are worried about killing this guys confidence by benching him, I think we are wrong. Keep throwing him in there then his conidence will be shot. There has to be a level of embarassment this guy feels, if not than he is a turd. I'm seeing an Andrew Walter career path for this guy if something isn't done soon. What happened to Al? He doesn't want to admit he's wrong? He admits it every time we lose. It's becomming obvious that our last three picks 1st round picks were the wrong ones.
Some of you guys are right, Russell is not the only problem, but you have to start somewhere. What do you want to do, bench the whole team? Not a bad idea but not possible.
the whole team sucks. that includes the coaches. al davis sucks the big banna..
our defense is a crack. they dont even fake a blitz the other teams offense knows:
1)Namdi only plays on the left side( oh gee lets put our #1 on the right side)
2) we never blitz or attempt a fake (the o lineman are never confused against us like our offense is against other D's
3) what is a screen pass?? (the raiders offense dont know)
4) why do we always throw long and not throught the middle with the exception of Zach( wow what imagination)
This is why Al Davis should fire himself
JaMcMuffin throws an uncatchable ball. He has no touch, no accuracy and no clue.We needed to adress both sides of the line and we didn't. Now we're paying for it. As long as that dead guy that owns our team keeps real head coaches from coaching The Raiders, this is what we'll get. I heard his mom lived to 100. God help us.
Enough with the negative articles!! Let the coaches deal with who needs to be on the field. "Anyone can support a team that is winning - it takes no courage. But to stand behind a team to defend a team when it is down and really needs you, that takes a lot of courage."
-- Bart Starr
RAIDERNATION. WALK OUT AT HALFTIME, EVERY GAME, STOP BUYING TICKETS, BEERS, JERSEYS AND THEN YOU'LL SEE CHANGE.
IF YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE WORLD, CHANGE YOURSELF. queso
It's simple, in the day if LaMonica was stinking John Madden went with Blanda for the save. Just remember when Blanda Bailed out Stabler. There was no QB contraversy, "Just Wins Baby"!!!! Thats what made me a Raider Fan! A Commitment to Excellence. Not a Commitment to Save Face.
Al used to not give a darn about anything but winning. But what has happened?
Lets go back to "Just Win Baby."
I am glad that the rest of Raider Nation is starting to listen to what I've been saying for 2 years: JR can't see the field, probably has some sort of retinal disorder, brought on by contact. Whatever happened to him has effected his ability to think clearly as well. The arrogance of taking 60 million after holding out and then insisting that everything is hunky dory week after week, along with his bloated body and bloated self image, the pimp dress he wears, shows that he was never pro material. They should have administered some sort of psych eval before signing him and throwing away all of that money; -and what is easily going to be a few decades of 30% winning pct. The Raiders evidently have no serious scouting program at all. When they rebuild their team they need to get some SMART people to work the college talent market. They screwed this thing up and you can't blame Al for Russell or for that matter Cable who is showing himself to be a cheap shot chuckle-headed fat-boy.
watch alex smith will become a good nfl QB for the 49ers, u know why, cause he works hard and has something called DESIRE unlike jruss
I've been a Raider fan for almost 20 years. I've been there through the bad, I've cried myself to sleep when I was in grade school when they were routinely beaten, and I've shared in the joy when they brought in Gruden, a real coach, and Gannon, a real quarterback. Now, when I see my Raiders basically give the finger to us the fans, and pis* on the great logo so many great Raiders players are responsible for, I ask myself, why bother? Well, I wont anymore. I'm done. Scre* you Russell, scre* you McFadden, and just quit already DHB. God I hate this team!!
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