SB Nation User Blog: naq92

Jamarcus Russell...not too shabby?

naq92 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:28:52 -0000

I'm going to start off by first mentioning the astronomical upside of Jamarcus Russell. Perhaps the strongest throwing arm in the league, the size, the calm demeanor (although, i guess whether thats a good attribute or a bad one, is debatable). But obviously, he hasn't established himself as a strong starting QB because his obvious weaknesses, such as throwing accuracy, lack of work ethic (maybe?), pocket presence, poor mechanics. However, given the way he played on monday night, I feel that his performance should be drawing a nod from the raidernation as opposed to the scrutiny and criticism that has followed.

First off, I'd like to say that I understand where the harsh criticism of Jamarcus is coming from. We haven't had a winning team in a looong time, and we havent had a decent QB in a loong time. I get that. I also get that some of Jamarcus' throws are absolutely UNWATCHABLE, leaving you wondering which receiver he was throwing to, if there was one at all. And in the 1st quarter, he definitely killed what could've been a great opening drive. However...I still believe there was more good than bad.

I'll start with the intangibles, which isn't too much. I would say his calm-demeanor is definitely a positive, especially with so many young players around. I think its good for a leader of the team to remain calm, cool and collected when things are going his way. Instead of dwelling on the past, start thinking about what to do to help the team for the future. I also think you have to applaud him for going back into the game when the raiders needed him most. Shows that he's not a quitter and that he doesn't only care about the dollar signs. I'm sure it would've been quite easier for him to rest his knee (which did take a nasty shot on that QB sneak) and come back in practice on wednesday, if not the next series. Instead, Jamarcus went back after the Raiders got a 1st down, and promptly scored a potential game-winning TD.

next, I'm going to talk about his statistics. The official game line is this: 12/30 208 yards 1TD/2INT. pretty bad. all around. But I definitely dont think he played as badly as the stats would indicate. So let's break this down...

1. I'm going to remove the second pick and corresponding incompletion because it came on a hail mary and not on a throw where Jamarcus was actually making reads, working on timing, testing his accuracy. It was a chance play, and all Jamarcus had to do was throw it up and hope somebody caught the ball. lets be honest with ourselves Russell haters, theres no way to justify holding that 2nd pick against him.

that would bring our line to 12/29 1TD/1INT.

2. unfortunately, i couldn't find official stats to support this (help please?), but from watching the game, I'm absolutely convinced there were atleast 6 balls that could've been caught by our receivers, that weren't. obvious ones that come to mind were DHB, who must've missed 2 or 3, Louis Murphy, there was one he shouldve caught, and of course, the un-tuck rule. Mcfadden and JLH also had a noticeable drop. However, I will conservatively say (until someone can find some good stats) that Raiders receivers dropped (or atleast, shouldve caught) 5 passes. I'm including the louis Murphy play as one dropped pass as a TD catch for the reasons I'm sure many of you guys have already dropped down all over this blog.

That would most likely (not definite) bring Jamarcus Russell's line to 17/29. 250+ yards. 2TDs/1INT.

not bad at all. in fact, I'd say that's quite good. It doesn't erase those awful throws which have been happening too consistently. But it does erase some throws where he really threaded the needle and didn't get compensation for it (JLH, 3rd and 15, etc). I'm not saying that he couldn't have done better, I'm just saying that he did a lot better than what your lying eyes would tell you. : )

Off-topic sidenote: one heck of a job by Super Mario Henderson, handling Merrimen the way he did. props to Cable on how balanced our run game looked in regards to the rotation of mike bush and mcfadden. props to miller for being a great target our QB could consistently fall back to. props to Tommy Kelly, Gerard Warren, Richard Seymour and Greg Ellis for showing us that, with the right talent, the standard four man rush is not obsolete. if this team plays the same way they did tonight in KC, we're looking at a 1-1 record. The Silver And Black Are Back.

OT: passer ratings and ufl

naq92 — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:15:02 -0000

OT: passer ratings and ufl

just wanted to throw a couple things out there. first, just about every football fan uses passer rating as a guage to how well a QB is doing. but does anyone actually know the formula to come up w/ a qb rating? if against houston russell's line looks like: 18/25 236 yds, 2/0. how exactly does that equal a 128.1 passer rating? what passer rating number is on "par" with the rest of the league? what's good and bad for the league? most importantly though, how does the formula for passer rating make it relevent to guage how successful a QB is playing? Another thing, what do you guys think about the ufl? personally, im pretty excited about the prospects of seeing a "minor league" football league, especially since it'll be on the cheap. Also the local team, the california redwoods, are playing all of their home games at pac bell park, and one can get in for 10 bucks. seriously considering season tix here, especially since none of their games collide w/ raider games.

read it and weep, Darrius Heyward-Bey haters!!!

naq92 — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:23:09 -0000

read it and weep, Darrius Heyward-Bey haters!!!

although DHB has struggled the first couple of days in camp, he's shown signs of turning it around. seems to support the claims of "nerves" hurting him or perhaps him just getting accustomed to Jamarcus' throws. either way, i'm sure everyone is glad to hear that DHB is starting to turn it around. let's all hope he can start to do it with some consistency

The Starting MLB in 2009, Ricky Brown?!?

naq92 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:44:38 -0000

According to Jerry Mcdonald's blog, Tom Cable has begun considering permanently moving Ricky Brown to the Middle Linebacker spot to move Kirk Morrison outside. link

Inside of the article, Tom Cable admits to thinking about the idea of having Ricky Brown start in the middle and althogh training camp is young, Ricky Brown has been getting a significant amount of reps in the middle. He's been taking some reps there since the OTA's in may.

I know even before Ricky Brown started getting reps at MLB there were many on this blog that believed that K.Morrison was much better suited playing OLB to help utilize his speed and coverage skills better.

This still begs the question, will the 2009 Raiders play better w/ Ricky Brown in the middle and Kirk morrison on the outside? How will this affect our run defense? Could this move translate into more wins? lemme know, what do all you guys think.

JaRuss' camp is on!!

naq92 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:32:19 -0000

JaRuss' camp is on!!

According to Jerry Mac's Blog and the NFL Network, Jamarcus Russell has started his QB and WR camp. I hope this means we see much better production from him and the rest of the offense during the 09 season. 3 wks till training camp!!

The Absolute Worse-Case Scenario

naq92 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:32:01 -0000

In his second full season as the starting QB, Jamarcus Russell fails. The raiders are handed another horrific 4-12 and a corresponding top 5 draft pick.

I think last week Brianmulhall put out one hell of a debate topic in asking the question about who our starting QB should be this season. It brought a lot of good information about what both Russell and Garcia bring to the team. But what should be the team's next move be if Jamarcus absolutely falls flat on his face during the 09 season. Although all of us are surely hoping for success, Russell playing is no guarantee. Especially given his young WR's, unproven Oline and the nasty defenses he'll be facing this yr (Giants, Steelers, Eagles, Cowboys, Ravens).

A good argument could be made that Jamarcus will only improve and build on what he did the last 3 games of the season (check the stat line against New England: 17 for 32, 242 yds, 2 TDs to 1 pick, 85.7 passer rating), but he's taken steps back before (see week 12, Denver to week 13 KC. Wk 4 SD to Wk 6 after the bye, no less! NO)

Also, if the Raiders end up finishing another 4-12, 5-11 type season, and are given a top ten or top five pick, the Raiders may be exposed to a premier QB prosepct. It seems next yr there are going to be some legitimate QB prospects in the draft such as Sam Bradford, Colt Mccoy, maybe even Tim Tebow and who knows who else will emerge during the 2009 college football season.

Another alternative option the raiders have is to sign a QB in free agency or trade one that has either ran out his welcome on his current team or for whatever reason is on the trade market. There were reports that Cleveland wanted to draft Mark Sanchez making Derek Anderson and maybe even Brady Quinn on the trade market. Also during the 08 season, it was said that Donovan Mcnabb wanted out of Philadelphia. Other QBs scheduled to enter free agency: Philip Rivers and Eli Manning, though their most likely to be resigned by their current team. Also, however, Kyle Orton who put up solid numbers in 08 might not resign with the Broncos after this season if Denver feels they have found a QB of the future.

So, the point of the post is to bring about the hypothetical question, what should the Raiders do IF Russell, given the starting QB spot, doesn't show anywhere near the productiviity he should in Year 3?

Poll

Russell's 09 is an utter failure, Raiders next move?

draft an elite QB prospect with ugh, another top 10 pick

13 votes

Give him a 4th season to figure it out.

28 votes

trade valuable draft picks for a competent QB

5 votes

Sign a QB in free agency

21 votes

If Garcia hasn't retired, start him

21 votes

88 votes | Poll has closed

Crabtree missing combine...good or bad for raiders

naq92 — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:47:17 -0000

So, on my home from today's sharks game i heard the latest interesting tidbit about the 2009 nfl draft. link

It's obvious that perhaps the raiders biggest need for the team this year is at WR. This injury may have allowed us to snag the best receiver and maybe the best overall athlete at pick #7.

We can still definitely fix our WR problem through FA with huge names such as Housh, Boldin, and maybe some high-risk/high reward guys like TO and Plax (although I would definitely stay away from them).

Just wanted to hear what you guys think about Crabtree and whether or not this makes him possible to go to us at #7. or maybe we should stay away from him because of the injury...?