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Raiders Preview Pre-Season Game 1
By Jeremy Harness August 9, 2007 |
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The reason why Daunte Culpepper is with the Oakland Raiders is obvious now, and that is because JaMarcus Russell is holding out in what Al Davis is calling “option clause money”. Russell this week has repeated what he said at the beginning of this hold out and that he has nothing to add until the Raiders meet his terms of $30 million guaranteed money, the Raiders are willing to guarantee $26.5 million. Nobody expected that Russell would be a hold out and not even striking this amount of time. Talk has been that the hold out can go onto the first week of the regular season as the Raiders get ready to open up their first pre season game on Saturday night at the Coliseum against the Arizona Cardinals. The way both sides are reporting it as of this past few days there is no guarantee that Russell will sign before opening day of the regular season and also discussions between the four Raider appointed representatives and Russell agent Eric Metz have been stalled by $3.5 million dividing them both. The Raiders have made the move going with Culpepper and is the best decision to make was to sign Culpepper who Russell has been compared to as a young Culpepper. The Raiders and coach Lane Kiffin have opened up to a very accomplished quarterback and look for Culpepper to give a lot than say Josh McCown who is scheduled to start Saturday night's game. Coming into the season which starts for the Raiders on September 9th against Detroit and it was very important that they have the experienced Culpepper on board to try and kick off the Raider season. There was no way that the Raiders were going to go with McCown out there especially when the Raiders are on the verge of rebuilding. After two rock bottom years the Raiders are trying to get something going and change things, the Raiders had to do something, and Culpepper was the answer. The one thing that most people are not looking forward to is the starters not playing in a whole lot of plays for Saturday night's pre season game. Usually what most football people know is that pre season games really don't feature a lot of plays in their starting years. You can expect the starters to play two series of downs to a full quarter in this one if coach Kiffin is feeling pretty good about it or if the Raiders need to see if they can get more in the rhythm. Most of the game on Saturday will be about second and third stringer guys and see what their made of because its not so much about the starters but obviously they need to get a rhythm going and get something going for the regular season. Pre season is mainly for the guys who are trying to make the team and basically trying to carve out a roster spot for themselves. Pre season games will also give coaches time to evaluate personnel because you can only do so much during practice. You can only see someone during practice and see what there made of during live action and this is what pre seasons for. No telling right now how much of a help Josh McCown and Andrew Walter will be for Culpepper because Culpepper has more experience at quarterback. McCown was thrown in with wide receiver Mike Williams and the reason why they are here is because the Lions wanted to get rid of both of those guys. So right now, McCown doesn't have anything to bring to the table besides a few years experience and he has a year or two of starting quarterback experience but it wasn't really that great coming from Arizona. I don't expect to see too much of McCown at all although he's starting Saturday night. Lane Kiffin needs to tweak this offensive line because this club gave up 72 sacks to the defense last year ranking the Raiders last for offensive protection in the NFL how embarrassing. This offensive line has been bad for a long time and that’s probably the reason why Russell is holding out because he doesn't want to get killed back there. Russell will with that offensive line the way it is now. Al Davis and the Raiders have not done anything in the off-season to improve the offense at all since last season when coach Art Shell had the club. The only significant change is Robert Gallery has moved from offensive tackle to left guard and Langston Walker is now with the Buffalo Bills. Jeremy Newberry has signed to be the starting center for Jake Grove. The two bad knees that Newberry has you don't really know how long Newberry is going to hold up. Especially he spent the last year entirely on injured reserve. Therefore, we do not know where Newberry's health is at. We don't know how much an improvement that is and he has experience but what kind of experience can he do on the field. In conclusion, don't expect too much from this group this year. The Raiders who went 2-14 last season. You might get some flashes here and there from the guys I named above but it will mostly be about a passing game and Culpepper finding guys like Ronald Curry and Jerry Porter to make the offense somewhat interesting but remember they're the Raiders for Pete's sake. The Raiders host the Cardinals on Saturday night at the Coliseum on Saturday August 11th. The Raiders then head across the bay the following week Saturday August 18th for a 7PM kick off at Candlestick Park for week two of the pre season. Jeremy Harness covers Raiders football and co-hosts Sportstalk on 1690 KFSG Sacramento. |
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