Sometimes Raider fans make me laugh. I mean, really, really laugh....Alot.
In this post, Saint, who runs Silver and Black Pride begins his Top-10 Reasons for Raider fans to be excited for 2008 with his #1 reason - JaMarcus Russell. While that in itself isn't that crazy, it's a comment he makes within the realm of his explanation that caught my attention --
2008 would have been the year that he came out of college had he stayed at LSU. Do you think that Miami would be drooling all over their BIG TUNA if he were available?
There is NO DOUBT in my mind that JaMarcus would have been chosen #1 overall this year if he'd have stayed in school and he is BY FAR the best QB taken since the 2004 draft, which produced, Philip Rivers, Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger. Jay Cutler and Alex Smith just AREN'T as good as these four.
Two of those quarterbacks have already won Super Bowls, Big Ben and Eli, while Rivers has led his team to the playoffs in consecutive years and could have been facing off against Eli this year, had he and LT been healthy in the AFC Championship.
Where to begin?? Did he actually put Alex Smith and Jay Cutler in the same sentence??
Second, to say JaMarcus Russell is, without a doubt, the best quarterback drafted since 2004 is just plain dumb. Let's look at the numbers --
First, here are Jay's stats from his rookie season --
Next, here are Russell's numbers from his action in 2007 --
Ummmmm....not even close.
Ok, so what about in college?? Russell was the #1 overall pick. He should have been a much better college QB than Jay, right??
Here are Jay's stats from Vandy --
And now, Russell's --
Ummmmm, alot closer than expected.
In fact, when you consider the talent that Russell had around him, and that the two played in the SAME CONFERENCE, against the SAME COMPETITION, there is no question about who the better quarterback is. I mean, everyone talks about how great of an athlete Russell is, but it was Cutler that ran for over 1250 yards and 17 TD's in college.
Hey, I can't blame Saint, or any raiders fan, for hanging their hopes and dreams to JaMarcus Russell. Do they have a choice? If Russell turns into another Todd Marinovich, the raiders will be irrelevant for another 5 years. I tend to believe that's the case anyway, as long as the walking corpse is running things. The point is, if you are going to make a BOLD statement like "Jay Cutler and Alex Smith just AREN'T as good as....JaMarcus Russell", and put him in the same group as two Super Bowl winning QBs, with numbers like what we see above, something a little better than blind optimism to back it up would be appreciated!
Face it, raider-nation, the corpse choked 25 years ago with Elway and he choked again when he passed on Cutler. Here's to another 20 years of 0 Super Bowl wins and 4-12 seasons....