Do the Raiders wish they did not draft Jamarcus Russell?
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JaMarcus Russell's holdout is now the longest for a number 1 pick since Bo Jackson held out the entire 1984 season so that he did not have to play for the Bucs (by the way: Super Bowl titles for Bo = 0, for the Bucs = 1, suck it Bo). It has been reported on profootballtalk that JaMarcus is in no hurry to get a deal done since he does not really want to play for the Raiders anyways. It is beginning to look like Russell may hold out well into the season. Even if he does report soon, he will have virtually no chance of starting this year -- the season is lost for JaMarcus and the Raiders. Seeing what has transpired do the Oakland Raiders wish they had picked someone else? Here are two interesting candidates.
Quinn held out for a bit with the Cleveland Browns so there is no guarantee he would have signed with the Raiders by now, but it certainly seems likely. The Raiders, particularly Al Davis, were higher on Russell because he had a big arm and Davis loves to throw the ball downfield. But if Lane Kiffin is installing a similar offense to the one he co-ran at USC it would seem like Brady Quinn would be a better fit. He is much more in the mold of Leinhart, who obviously excelled in this offense, than Russell is. Not only that but Quinn has looked very impressive in his first two preseason games for the Browns. If I were a Raiders exec I would definitely be wishing I took Quinn at this point.
Daunte Culpepper has looked very good running the Raiders offense in the preseason. He does not appear to have all his pre-shredded knee mobility back, but even 75% of what he was would be pretty good. Let's not forget that just three years ago he had one of the greatest season's for a quarterback ever with Nate Burelson as his primary target. If the Raiders had Adrian Peterson in the backfield with Culpepper (as opposed to the perennially under achieving Lamont Jordan) they would be looking half-way dangerous at this point. This possibly explosive offense paired with their young talented defense would really have made them a pretty decent team. If they had drafted Peterson, they could have worked out a trade earlier for Culpepper and he would have been around for the entirety of training camp and would be running the offense much more proficiently at this point. I think this would have been the ideal (and cheaper) situation for the Raiders and they must really regret having taken the no-show Russell. PA, SportsIndeed.com
