The Curious Case of JaMarcus Russell

The Oakland Raiders had, by all accounts, a successful draft. A hard hitting middle linebacker. A versatile defensive lineman. Two promising bookend tackles. And to cap it off they made a trade to settle their quarterback situation.

When it was announced that the Raiders traded for Jason Campbell, Head Coach Tom Cable came out and announced that Campbell would be the starter. The incumbent quarterback, JaMarcus Russell, seemed to be on his way out of town. The only question was when.

Then a curious thing happened. Tom Cable discovered that he does not have as much pull with the team as he thought. Now Cable has come out and stated that there will be an open competition for the starting quarterback job. The man with all the power in the organization had to have told Cable that JaMarcus Russell still has a job, and that man is Al Davis.

When the Russell Release Watch started, you could find video all over the place of Al Davis at the infamous news conference after he fired Lane Kiffen making a statement that Kiffen wanted to draft Calvin Johnson, and that even though Kiffen didn't want Russell, that he was the starting quarterback. Get over it. I wonder how many times Davis watched this.

Davis had to have seen it and thought 'No one tells me what to do here!' So Russell stays with the Raiders and gets his roster bonus. It doesn't matter that Russell has been an unmitigated bust. No one tells Al Davis what to do.

For his credit, Russell has come out ans stated the he is going to work his butt off. The problem is that his lack of work ethic has enabled his butt to get so big that he probably never will be able to work it back into decent playing shape. Now the Raiders have a problem that many teams have had over the years and never did handle properly. They have 2 quarterbacks. And when you have 2 quarterbacks you don't have A QUARTERBACK.

I have always liked Jason Campbell. I think he is in a situation out in Oakland where he can get settled into the starters position and be the quarterback that the Redskins thought he would be when they drafted him in the first round back in 2005. Now his hardest task awaits. He needs to convince Al Davis that he is the man for the job. I don't see it happening any time soon.