JaMarcus Russell?s career in Oakland is over.

Old School

OVR
Forum Member
Mar 19, 2006
38,418
460
83
74
Raider or bust? Russell the latter

By JOSH DUBOW, AP Sports Writer 3 hours, 54 minutes ago



<FORM id=buzz-toolbar class=buzz method=post action=http://buzz.yahoo.com/vote/></FORM><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>YAHOO.util.Event.addListener( window, "load", function() { setTimeout(function(){ var buzz = new YAHOO.Media.Buzz("buzz-toolbar",{"sync":["buzz-tools"],"showCount":true,"countPosition":"inside","fetchCount":false,"loc_strings":{"buzz_up":"Buzz up!","buzzed":"Buzzed!","one_vote":"{0} vote","n_votes":"{0} votes"}});buzz.onSuccess.subscribe(function(){ if(YAHOO.Updates){ YAHOO.Updates.Disclosure.showDialog({"container":"yup-container","source":"buzz","type":"buzzUp","lang":"en-US"}); } }); }, 15); });</SCRIPT>


ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP)?Move over Ryan Leaf, Tony Mandarich and Charles Rogers(notes). The NFL has another contender for biggest draft bust.
After three years, more than $39 million and only seven wins as the starting quarterback for the Oakland Raiders, JaMarcus Russell?s(notes) career in Oakland is over.
The top overall pick in the 2007 draft, Russell was a colossal failure in Oakland. Two weeks after acquiring quarterback Jason Campbell(notes) from Washington, the Raiders released Russell. At 24, his NFL career is at a crossroads, and whether he?ll even get an offer from another club is problematic.


?We wish him well,? senior executive John Herrera told The Associated Press.
The decision signifies that owner Al Davis finally lost patience with the immensely talented but unproductive player he drafted against the wishes of former coach Lane Kiffin.
Russell showed up at last week?s minicamp, saying he would keep coming to work until told otherwise. He looked decent in the first of five practices last weekend, but got less work as the weekend went on.
The Raiders paid Russell about $36.4 million through last season. They still owe him $3 million more, putting the final tally on his earnings at about $39.4 million. But the team saved $6.45 million by not having him on the roster in 2010.
Since the start of the common draft in 1967, only one other No. 1 pick was released this quickly in his NFL career. Indianapolis cut 1992 top pick Steve Emtman after three seasons, but that was more because of injuries than production.
Emtman played three more seasons for Miami and Washington. It remains to be seen whether any team will give Russell another shot.
Davis believed Russell could turn the fortunes of his struggling franchise when he drafted him. He stood by him during his struggles, revealing when he fired Kiffin in 2008 that the coach did not want him.
?He is a great player. Get over it and coach this team on the field,? Davis read from a letter he sent Kiffin before the firing. ?That is what you were hired to do. We can win with this team.?
But the Raiders were unable to win with Russell at the helm and Davis allowed coach Tom Cable, Kiffin?s successor, to bench Russell midway through last season. The move was popular in the locker room and gave the team a spark on the field as Bruce Gradkowski(notes) led comeback wins over Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
Davis was not satisfied with Gradkowski as his standard bearer and the Raiders were linked to possible offseason deals for Donovan McNabb(notes) and Ben Roethlisberger(notes). While the Raiders downplayed how serious those talks ever got, they did make the move for another quarterback when they acquired Campbell from Washington for a 2012 fourth-round draft pick.
The team showed confidence in Campbell by extending his contract through 2011, giving him a $4.5 million deal for that season on top of the $3.14 million he is owed this season.
Russell won only seven of his 25 starts as the Raiders extended an NFL-worst streak to seven straight seasons with at least 11 losses. He completed just 52.1 percent of his passes in his career with 18 touchdowns, 23 interceptions, 15 lost fumbles and a passer rating of 65.2.
That means Russell has been paid more than $5 million per win, more than $2 million per touchdown pass and more than $100,000 per completion.
While Russell?s numbers are superior to Leaf?s, he was paid considerably more money to do it and was picked first overall instead of second. Leaf?s rookie contract guaranteed him only $11.25 million.
Russell?s tenure in Oakland got off to a rough start and never got much better. He held out his first season, not signing a contract until after the first game of the regular season. That made his rookie season almost a complete loss, as he started only one game.
He showed some signs of progress in his second season, especially in winning the final two games against Houston and Tampa Bay. But the problems of work ethic and his weight never disappeared and his third season was an utter disaster.
He was fined for being overweight when he showed up at training camp. He then put together one of the worst seasons in recent memory for an NFL quarterback. He completed 48.8 percent of his passes, with three touchdowns, 11 interceptions and a 50.0 passer rating that was the lowest since Leaf, Bobby Hoying and Craig Whelihan all finished below 50 in 1998.
NOTES: The Raiders also announced that they signed free agent running back Michael Bennett to a contract.

<HR>
 

Old School

OVR
Forum Member
Mar 19, 2006
38,418
460
83
74
I can't recall a larger waste of money concerning a player in all my years of living and breathing the joy which is following the day to day happenings of Professional sports.
 

Emersonboozer

Registered User
Forum Member
Oct 3, 2006
822
2
0
I can't recall a larger waste of money concerning a player in all my years of living and breathing the joy which is following the day to day happenings of Professional sports.

Thats why the NFL has to reign in the ammt of money a team pays a draft pick. Heck alot of teams trade down because they dont want anything to do with paying a gazillion dollars to a player who may or may not become a decent NFL performer. Its rediculous
 

hedgehog

Registered
Forum Member
Oct 30, 2003
32,859
665
113
50
TX
:sadwave: I wonder what team takes a chance on him? maybe Canadian football needs a star :shrug:
 

IE

Administrator
Forum Admin
Forum Member
Mar 15, 1999
95,440
223
63
Payton: Saints not interested in Russell


Saints coach Sean Payton says he doesn?t think now would be the right time for New Orleans to bring in former LSU star JaMarcus Russell(notes).

Russell was a popular college player in Louisiana, putting together a highlight-filled LSU career that led Oakland to make him the No. 1 overall draft choice of 2007. But Russell struggled with the Raiders, who released him on Thursday after thee seasons.

Payton says it?s newsworthy when a top draft choice is released after only three seasons and that players like Russell often get a second chance in the NFL.
 

THE KOD

Registered
Forum Member
Nov 16, 2001
42,497
260
83
Victory Lane
jamarcus.jpg

...............................................................

Even without outrageous salaries, top draft picks will always be under enormous pressure. But guarantees of $30 million or more amplify the potential for anger and frustration over a high-profile bust to a disturbing level. Over the last two years, Russell could not have been vilified more if he had invented the subprime mortgage.

His failures and chubbiness launched a thousand nicknames - JaWalrus, JaBustus, JaRyanleaf. Unless he succeeds with another team, part of his legacy will undoubtedly be providing the same kind of shorthand for sports underachievement that the Watergate Hotel gave to political scandals.

And why not? With $31.5 million in guaranteed money, he was an easy and justifiable target. More to the point, the Raiders' financial investment was bound to obscure Al Davis' vision, persuading him to hold on to Russell and hold on and hold on, because surely the big-armed kid (and his big-cash contract) would pay off someday.

So the fans and the media howled, and they mocked. People old enough to be Russell's parents - even grandparents - felt compelled to insult him, lest the message not get through to the Raiders' owner.

A rookie salary cap wouldn't eliminate the viciousness, but it would remove some dysfunction from the draft process. For a while now, Draft Day has been fueled by an unhealthy obsession with quarterbacks.

After the introduction of the salary cap in 1994, teams began to feel more pressure to use a top pick on a quarterback, so they wouldn't be spending big bucks on both a prospect and their team leader. It seemed wiser to roll the two expenditures into one.

Plus, the increased hype surrounding the draft pressured faltering teams into making splashy statements that day. If they lacked a quarterback, they were going to take one, regardless of any doubts they might have had about his worthiness. Never mind that Brett Favre, Drew Brees and Kurt Warner all won Super Bowls for teams that didn't draft them. Or that the most successful quarterback of this era, Tom Brady, went in the sixth round.

Meanwhile, of the 10 quarterbacks taken at No. 1 over the last 13 years, three have already belly-flopped in a big way. A fourth dazzled on the field, then did time in federal prison.

Only two Super Bowls have come out of the crop, one from each Manning brother. Contrast those results to the previous 30 years. From 1968 through 1997, only eight of the No. 1 picks were quarterbacks. Those eight picks produced just one genuine bust (Jeff George in 1990) and 1o Super Bowl wins (by John Elway, Jim Plunkett, Terry Bradshaw and Troy Aikman).

Russell never seemed to understand what his job required. He hadn't a clue. Even when the most elementary principles of damage control might have improved his standing with his teammates and the fans, he didn't deliver. The Raiders didn't school him properly. Nor apparently did the agents who took a cut of his salary.

He simply had way too much handed to him at age 21, and as a result, he reaped excessive humiliation at age 24. The NFL and the players union couldn't prevent the whole disaster, but they can mitigate the potential for more of the same.
................................................................

wow .

40 million to sit on your ass and eat cheeseburgers.

Maybe it is a problem to hand a 21 year old kid this kind of money and expect him to be the next Peyton Manning.

:SIB :shrug:
 
Last edited:
Bet on MyBookie
Top