Although anyone can see JaMarcus Russell's play on the field this season at times this season one very under reported factor is the fact that in April this year JaMarcus's Uncle and Father figure Ray Ray Russell passed away.

There is a great article at:

http://www.sacbee.com/raiders/story/1927287.html

ALAMEDA – He was his rock. His deflector. His father figure.

And now, he's gone.

Ray Russell, uncle to Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell, passed away at 42 years young April 17 of congestive heart failure. He was everything to the face of the Raiders franchise, trying to keep temptation at bay for a youngster with $60 million in his pocket and wanting to keep his nephew grounded.

JaMarcus Russell is the Quarterback for the Oakland Raiders and has the world against him right now he is also a 24 year old who has recently lost the closest person in the world to him. 

I have no evidence that this is a factor other than my own logic but it would have to be on his mind.

There is the obvious argument that if he is emotionally unstable at all he shouldn't be playing but I really don't see any great benefit in playing Gradkowski (or Garcia) as he isn't taking us to the playoffs either and these young guys are only going to learn together by going through the hard times together.

I know he is playing pretty shitty at the moment but to me he looks like a good player in bad form rather than just a straight out bad player, he isn't going anywhere we might as well get behind the guy and push him to success rather than failure.

At least this year we have a bunch of young guys with potential to root for than a bunch of pissed off vets.

R.I.P. Ray Ray Russell

Antonio Pierce has come out and said that playing the Raiders felt like a srimmage:

"I do not like knocking teams," Pierce said.  "But right now, they're struggling.  We're playing that game the other day and, honestly, it felt like a scrimmage, like a practice.  It felt like we were going against our offense [in a controlled setting] as far as the tempo.

"There was no vibe of trying or effort from the Raiders at all from a defensive standpoint against their offense.  We're getting three-and-outs.  You don't hear nobody [saying], 'Hey, let's go!' trying to pick the guys up, rallying them, getting guys fired up.  There was nothing.  It was quiet.  A guy gets sacked or somebody gets beat, they just get up.  It's not like there's yelling or no kind of [emotion] about the way they were playing.

"It was shocking to be out there in that game and get that kind of feeling."

What the F is going on with this team, seems so far from week one when the showed so much promise., how bad is it when the shining light is a loss?  I've been a big defender for the most part but how can anyone support this? hopefully this will be a spark.........hopefully

Ill never stop supporting the Raiders but this cuts, I think bringing back Gruden is the only option and giving him as much control as he wants, he clearly still has a affinity for the Raiders and would bring the discipline and passion back.

PFT - Antonio Pierce says playing Raiders "felt like a scrimmage"

Now let me be clear I have not given up on JaMarcus but even though I think he could be a dominant player, Stevie Wonder can see that JaMarcus is not cutting the mustard at the moment and unless there is some serious improvement REAL FAST even Mr Davis is gonna see he needs to hit the bench and that maybe this aint gonna work out but the question is who would QB the team.

Many people have already touted the prospect of drafting bradford, Tebow , Snead etc etc but as we have found drafting a QB is a craps shoot and a potential very bad investment.

MY ANSWER: MICHAEL VICK

Vick is the prototype Al Davis player with a Cannon arm and real speed and with a year under his belt he will want to start and with Kolb playing so well in Philly even if McNabb retires i cant see Vick getting the Job so it is highly likely that he will be available.

This would be a classic Al Davis signing and Vick will have had a year of image rehabilitation so the heat will be a little off although im sure we would kop it still just because we are the Raiders but having Vick, McFadden, Bush, Schillens, DHB and Murphy that would be some SERIOUS play making ability.  Hell if the Eagles go crazy and go with Vick and Kolb over McNabb we should sign McNabb either way one of these guys will most likely be available and although we haven't seen anything from Vick yet to show that he is really back but would surely be a major upgrade on what we have seen so far.

Ideally id like to restructure JaMarcus's contract and sit him behind Vick till he's ready (if ever) as it would kill me to see us let him go and have him star somewhere else.

Off-season just gone was not the right time for the Raiders to go after Vick but next year is a whole different story.

Plus I tried it on Madden 10 and it is SWEEEEEEET!!!!! :)

Thanks to Bloodshot13 on previous post pointing out that the Raiders Depth Chart has been updated on raiders.com I thought it was worthy of its own post.

Things I thought were interesting were that Fargas is listed as the starter with Bush at the third back spot, im assuming that McFadden is number 2 as he will be all over the field and DHB is listed as the 2nd reciever but will be interesting to see what happens when Walker comes back.  Alston and Brown are both listed as starters for the OLB spot.

AHHHH WE  ARE SOOOOO CLOSE - BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Depth Chart from www.raiders.com

As you may have seen there has been a quite spirited debate in regards to the relevency of discssing Crabtree (Or Moneytree as they are calling him over on the Niners board) and his issues on this site so I think the best we to reslove this issue between the family we call the silver and black pride community i figure we should just have a poll.

Some argue that because of the situation regarding Crabtree dissing the raiders in the media, the reaction to not being picked by the raiders at the draft, the ridicule by the media for taking DHB instead of Crabtree and the fact that it is simply football related that the topic is relevant.  Others argue that because he does not play for the Raiders that it is not relevant.

If we vote that crabtree is not relevant then Crabtree posts will be banned from this blog and if we vote that it IS relevant then we will have a daily Crabtree watch post chronicalling the day to day life of Mr Crabtree........well maybe not but we will be free to post crabtree posts whenever we like :)

For those of you unfamilier with the debate see the post titled "Michael Crabtree may re-enter the 2010 NFL draft"  http://www.silverandblackpride.com/2009/8/6/979961/michael-crabtree-may-re-enter-2010

Found this at Rotoworld.com

Continue reading this post »