Grievance

Insightful post from Jerry today. Probably explains the minicamp situation and reminds us why that contract was such a difficult negotiation.

The good news is this reduces the likelihood that Al will re-sign JaMarcus for the league minimum after every other team turns up its nose at him. Unless a judge orders him to give the Raiders one more year of service...

Believe It!

An improbable offseason of intelligent moves continues with today's dismissal of JaMarcus Russell. It's a great day for the Raiders. Hope has returned. Everyone I've talked to is considering lifting his or her personal ban on the purchase of Raider gear. A return to the Coliseum this fall is entirely possible.

What's next for JaMarcus? Honestly, who cares? But for the record:

"Takin' a short break..."

I Want to Believe

Monte Poole called last weekend the Raiders' "finest weekend since their AFC championship victory over Tennessee on Jan. 19, 2003." It sure felt that way around here. No games were played. No touchdowns were scored. But the feeling of success was unmistakable.

Years ago, this blog began as an outlet for our love for the Raiders, always prepared to look on the bright side when the poor organizational moves offered scant brightness to find. Unfortunately, the CLOAK has turned intensely critical as all hope has been lost.

But I want to believe. I really do. And this draft has me thinking, "Maybe, just maybe..." But one celestial body is using his epic girth to blot out the emergence of a bright side in Alameda. Does JaMarcus wear a CLOAK OF IMMORTALITY, never to be purged from the roster?

Ironically, Al's desire to believe is the only thing that might crush mine. According to John Clayton (not really "news" but he has the reach...kinda like TMZ I guess), once Al Davis gives the final word, JaMarcus will hit the streets. On Sunday, Gwen Knapp detailed the risk for all Raider fans if Al does not make a clean break. He wants to believe.

Al, please let me be the bigger fool.

First Reported on the CLOAK

Hey, it's fun to say that.

So the sleuths at TMZ were clever enough even to find the CLOAK in search of JaMarcus Russell, and after making arrangements with John's buddy, nailed down an exclusive set of photos from The Palms.

As first reported on the CLOAK.

Mr. Davis, please add this to your "For Cause" file on JaMarcus. Look at the pictures. He's literally throwing away his opportunity.

JaMarcus in Vegas

My buddy is in Vegas this weekend and snapped this picture at the Palms Casino of JaMarcus Russell shooting craps.

My friend then apparently followed him around for a while, because he gave me these details:

The palms casino. Played craps from 3:30 to 5:30 Saturday morning. Small posse of 3. Went white t shirt gold chain (yellow diamonds). Staying at palms for jay z concert tonight. That dude is not 260. More like 300 bills easy. I will give you more updates when I have more. Rollin in Cadillac escalade. Dropped some major coin shopping. At least 20 bags.

With Adam Schefter saying JaMarcus weighed in at 290, my buddy's 3 bills does sound pretty easy.

Kawakami Tweets JaMarcus weighs 271

Jerry McDonald puns off Kawakami's tweet that Jammy weighs in 271.

JaMarcus Speaks

Jerry Mac does an excellent job breaking down how retarded the Raiders policies are when it comes to dealing with the media. But here's JaMarcus, speaking. Is it me, or does he sound less mumbly and dumb?

Knocking Some Sense Into JaMarcus?

According to Willie Brown, now un-retired and in charge of "eliminating some problems for Tom," (after all, he was in the room when Randy Hanson fell out of his chair), JaMarcus actually has been working out in Arizona under the supervision of a former Raiders player. Rumor has it that player is Eddie Anderson.

I have always had a fondness for defensive backs, and it is no secret that Lester Hayes is my favorite player of all time. But during the late '80's / early '90's Eddie Anderson was my man. As a vicious hitter at free safety, he brought intimidation back to the Raiders defensive backfield, and has never been replaced. In fact, during high school I replaced my school ID picture with Eddie Anderson's. I found this amusing.

At any rate, if there's one guy capable of knocking sense into JaMarcus, Eddie might be able literally to do so.

Horror Show

The Raider offseason rolls on, marginally more interesting than the regular season. Voluntary workouts began today without JaMarcus, per David White. Gotta love this excerpt:

No visible sign of JaMarcus Russell, though. Several players who have been at the facility for weeks said they have not seen the former No. 1 overall draft pick.

When asked if he'll show today, one starter laughed and said "That's a horror show." Another starter said "don't hold your breath."

Perhaps he hasn't made it through lethargy rehab quite yet.

Jerry Mac says let's all take a deep breath because this stuff is voluntary, but come on. If your teammates - starters, at that - are saying these things about you at this point in the year then you are DOA. There had better be some sort of magic going on in Arizona.

In other news I see that the Al Davis love for high draft picks that washed out elsewhere continues with the Kamerion Wimbley trade. This actually looks like a good move. The Raiders needed a pass rusher to replace Greg Ellis, and Al's accuracy on this front has been decent. With the changes taking place up front, are we evolving towards a 3-4?

Either way, these sorts of acquisitions describe why JaMarcus is getting another shot this year: Al doesn't want another team to rehab his #1 pick and make him look like a fool.

Crazy

Ok, I'm slightly relieved that this whole offseason of coach indecision could, in the end, just add an up-and-coming offensive coordinator and an apparently decent defensive line coach to the staff. But after shaking my head at this article a few times, two quotes bear repeating.

1. Hue Jackson: "It's a chance to go out and assist the head coach..." Not Tom Cable, the head coach.
2. Tom Cable: "I think it's a good decision by the organization." By the organization. Not the head coach. He's basically just observing as his (as of today) offensive coordinator is hired.

So here we sit undecided on Cable as head coach while the owner makes quite possibly the most important hiring on the coaching staff. Who does that?

And for another rhetorical question, did we really expect anything to change?

Our new offensive coordinator had this to say about his new job:

"The challenge with going to the Oakland Raiders and helping them become what they want to become is exciting. That's what you look for. I want to run to the challenge."

I wish you luck, Hue. The bottom line is that 2010 - like 2009 - will be highly dependent upon the development of JaMarcus Russell. As such, I haven't renewed contact with the Raiders ticket office just yet.

It's that time of the year

We're heading down the homestretch into the what is usually the most exciting part of the year for our beloved Oakland Raiders, the off season.

With that, several local writers attended a pretty interesting Tom Cable press conference yesterday, with most of them focusing on what he had to say about JaMarcus. It also sounds like Tom Cable is making the case for his job, and putting a lot of the blame on #2.

Gwen Knapp discusses the JaMarcus portion of the interview, goes through all the accusations of violence leveled against Cable, and then wonders at this exchange:

The most revealing moments came when Cable responded to questions about whether he'd received feedback from his boss. He either said he hadn't or simply shook his head. It all sounded and looked very familiar.

Lowell Cohn dwells on Cable's statements about JaMarcus, and says that Cable is calling into question JaMarcus' morality. Not that he's a degenerate or anything, at least off the field, but in football terms. This sentence stuck out:

As I understand it, the coach said the player has abundant talent but instead of nurturing the abundant talent, he has squandered it. This is a moral criticism. It means Russell has not been a right guy. It means he makes bad choices and he is defined by those choices — bust. The moral criticism is especially harsh when you remember the money Russell willingly took without giving effort in return. This is a devastating criticism and it doesn’t come from me. It comes from the player’s own coach.

Cam Inman cuts Russell some slack and calls out Richard Seymour, saying he's been a bust, too. So there's suckage all around, and I'm still pretty convinced that Al needs to go away and let somebody who cares about winning football games more than he cares about lawsuits and he-said, we-said BS. Happy New Year.

Money

While JaMarcus qualified for consideration as the feel good story of the week, I am happy to see that Cable is still aiming for anyone but Russell as the starter this week. So despite the game winning touchdown to Chaz, in light of Andrew Brandt's contract analysis this week I believe the Raider organization's sentiments are approximately the same as those exhibited by E-Trade in one of my favorite Super Bowl ads of all time:

GET UP!

After three quarters of an exciting game, no play received louder reaction from Johnny and me than the last hit on Charlie Frye.

"GET UP!! GET UP!!"

He didn't get up. JaMarcus is in, and immediately we suffer a penalty and the box is being stacked against our really strong running game. It doesn't look good.

Simpler Times

Lager, that is. I got it at Trader Joe's in honor of Dan's visit to Los Gatos, because according to the can it's hand-crafted in Wisconsin.

Mike Bush is running well, and JaMarcus is offering him Gatorade when he comes off the field after a tough run. Glad to see he's staying involved. Meanwhile, we're enjoying Kristi's text messages about the game.

So far: "Fuck the refs," and something to Dan about "SMALL MILE HIGH DICKS."

Charlie Frye Whoa

I mean, like WOW.

More details and speculation from Bronco Bill.

This is getting very, very interesting.

Welcome Back, Randy, JaMarcus

This was going to be a strictly Randy Hanson post, with the theme song to "Welcome Back, Kotter."



I thought it would be appropriate because it's a cool song from a cool show, and because Al is from Brooklyn.

Anyway, Jerry Mac does a breakdown/speculation of why in the name of anything Randy Hanson could possibly be back working for the Raiders, concluding, rather pithily and quite brutally, "You want a successful business model, check with Fortune 500." To make the implication explicit, The Raiders do not have a successful business model as Al Davis has currently constructed it.

But while I was out picking my daughter up from school, JaMarcus addressed the media, so we give him a nice welcome back, kinda sorta. He promises that when he gets back on the field, we'll see a "Totally different JaMarcus." But he hasn't lost any weight or changed his work ethic. So there. And he's keeping his money.

Kawakami has a transcript. God doesn't make mistakes, and time will tell, and it's not the end of the world.

Finally, since we opened with Brooklyn, we can close with Brooklyn, too. Lowell Cohn talks to Ira Miller, who invents the verb "to Raider." Getting Raidered sounds an awful lot like getting debacled. Ira likes Gradkowski, at least in relation to JaMarcus. This exchange stood out to me, after Miller says that "Getting the No. 1 draft choice off the field certainly helped them:

Cohn: Which No. 1 draft choice?

Miller: Both of them - the quarterback and Heyward-Bey. I don't think Heyward-Bey has any chance. He's one of Al's fantasies -- he runs fast.

That's kind of the impression I get about DHB, too. I got into a discussion via twitter yesterday with the author of Raiders Blog, who is still optimistic that DHB will pan out once he learns to catch the ball, because he's a good kid, works hard, etc. And I agree that sure, he's a good kid, etc, and I feel bad about suggesting he jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. That was a joke in poor taste. But the point is, DHB is not a football player. He's a track star. We may as well have drafted Usain Bolt. And anyone who suggests the Randy Hanson issue is overblown, or is not a big deal, or not a red flag indicator that something is deeply, deeply diseased and rotten within the structure of the Raiders organization is deep, deep denial. They're like the wives who stayed with Tom Cable after he beat them.

Because at the very least, we should be able to enjoy the sweet taste of a rare victory for longer than two days before reminding everyone in the stupidest way possible of the dysfunction that is the team we love.

Can JaMarcus pull a Vince Young?

You know, getting benched, and then coming back a season later and taking your team on a five-game winning streak with sensational last minute finishes? That's the subject of a Bill Williamson post.

Well, I think part of the question is answered in Paul Gutierrez's blog item yesterday.

Cable was asked what he has seen in Russell since his demotion.

"I don't really see any change whatsoever," Cable said. "He's working, doing what he's asked to do. He's preparing like normal. So I wouldn't say there was any change or anything I've noticed."

Not too much of an endorsement, right? Well, what about this, then - have you seen him doing things in his benching that he wasn't necessarily doing before?

"No, I see him staying the course and working," Cable said. "Preparing, the reps he gets, going in and working hard at them, preparing himself in the classroom, all those things that he has to do."

Just shoot me.

The Raiders' Disgrace is International: Who shot JR?

Al Davis likes to talk about the Raiders' international fan base, often with good reason.

But this can't help. The Independent covered the game against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving and had this to say:

There is plenty for both sets of fans to give thanks for. For Cowboys' followers, that includes quarterback Tony Romo being back to his best following his summer break-up with reality star Jessica Simpson. The blonde bombshell was blamed for one of his worst performances two years ago, and many diehards considered her to have put a hex on the franchise's leading man. For perennial cellar-dwellers Oakland Raiders there is reason to be cheerful, because their quarterback JaMarcus Russell, the No 1 draft pick in 2007, has been benched after looking anything but. Who shot JR? Turns out his wounds were self-inflicted.

Ouch. So JaMarcus is now known on two continents as a bust, and his benching is compared to Tony Romo dumping Jessica Simpson. Yes, I get Jammy and Jessica are both famous for having a lot of money and struggling with their weight. But that's brutal. And I'm not sure we're exactly "cheerful" about it, either.

Then, there's this:

It's one-way traffic, and the Raiders even manage to look like the Keystone Kops when two defenders collide trying to intercept a drop by Roy Williams, who admits to me his play "is not living up to expectations".

Nice. Our "Keystone Kops" defense provides a segue to discuss the shit-ass season of Roy Williams. I can attest to this, since he's on one of my fantasy teams. Not since Chris Chambers Effed me in the A on the last game of the 2005 season has a fantasy football receiver disappointed me.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Fool's Gold

Despite declaring myself a non-practicing Raiders fan some time ago, I haven't escaped the 2009 season completely. This week's JaMarcus benching has even gotten me back to reading Jerry's blog. And that little spark of hope deep down inside me is asking those tantalizing "what if" questions again.

The question that will be addressed this week: Just how bad is JaMarcus? Will life suddenly spring back into the WR corps? Will the Raiders sustain drives? Will they score touchdowns?

Both Jerry and David White noticed the increased enthusiasm level from key offensive players after practicing with Bruce Gradkowski as the starter. The contrast in energy level, engagement, and work ethic with that of JaMarcus is dramatic. According to Unk, for whom games are not blacked out, last week's TV announcers noticed what we've worried about all along: JaMarcus just doesn't seem to care.

So are we in a situation where anything will appear to be a drastic improvement over JaMarcus, or might Gradkowski impress us with his actual play? I am rooting for Gradkowski, but the unfortunate fact is that he hasn't done much in his career and putting it all together in a hurry to face a tough Bengals defense is a tall order. I fear that the Goldmember lamentations may not yet go away.

B-U-S-T

Early last season I considered starting a game of "Horse" with JaMarcus, whereby his miserable play and work ethic would letter-by-letter lead up to official designation as a b-u-s-t bust. For some reason I didn't do this, maybe laziness, perhaps because I didn't want to detract from the resale value of Johnny's jersey.


Once we got about three weeks into this season I was prepared to suffer. It just makes business sense to let JaMarcus struggle his way through this season, then write him off if he doesn't develop. But it seems he's surprised all of us - Al Davis included - with his ability to regress throughout this year.

So is Cable's benching with Al's blessing acknowledgement that he is a bust? Or is it a last-ditch attempt to deliver a message that JaMarcus needs to get serious or lose his career? From Cable's point of view this move makes sense: he gets to show that he's a good coach with an awful QB. But from Al's point of view? The Raiders have no real chance of making the playoffs. Perhaps he is thinking about saving all of his other investments by writing off the biggest one.