Yes, but I was more referring too the not studying film, putting in extra effort, having a cannon for an arm, and not being a leader. And Jamarcus will make almost as much guaranteed money ($32 mil) on one contract as Carr did on two contracts ($37 mil). EDIT: Check that, Russell comes in at over $39 million. Yikes.
Another reason a lot of people want to see Russell fail is because of his holdout. The Leaf comparison is a bit far-fetched. Ryan Leaf was supposed to be better than Peyton Manning in terms of pure ability, but had some questionable intangibles that ultimately led to the Colts picking Manning instead of Leaf. Who knew it would turn out to be a case of picking quite possibly the best QB in NFL History or the Worst.
I don't know how much of a coincidence it is, but catching him in photos looking "confused" just might be a metaphor for how he looks on the football field... <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kjDW37CIPh4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kjDW37CIPh4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> OMGoodness, the BLUE fur just tops it off... :grin:
This guy is ruthless on the Raiders, no change from the norm. Surprisingly he has Mays falling to them in the 2nd round. Does anyone really think he'll fall that far? Oakland Raiders: Taylor Mays, SS/OLB, USC I mean he's not a ballhawker but I'm sure Indy would like to add another DB for the next Bob Sanders season ending injury. Either way the Raiders win in this draft, there's going to be some big time first round talent spilage into the 2nd this year cause these kids want to get paid. This is going to be a very exciting draft.
Carr was a bit more like Tim Couch. Carr made a good leap in his 3rd year, but never improved past that, and he never had a good internal clock. Carr is an average QB, and is doing well as a backup.
I don't think many people have really hated the Raiders since the days of Jack Tatum in the 70's. I know the Raiders and their fans try and play up the "we're big and bad" image, but most opposing fans just find it laughable. Why should people lay off of Russell? 1. He was a number one pick. 2. He had a bad year. 3. He doesn't work hard to improve. It looks like he deserves any criticism he gets. Any number one pick will get criticized if they don't produce and don't work hard.
I don't think people want to see him fail. I think they are disgusted with his work ethic and apparent unwillingness to improve as a quarterback and a leader. He's failing just fine on his own. I don't think people are rooting against him turning his career around, I just don't think we feel that he is going to do that...especially when your team owner (a former GREAT owner before senility kicked in) supports him unconditionally despite him stealing money
Make no mistake, a lot of people turn on athletes the moment there is a holdout. The thought of the difference between super stinking rich and mega rich grinds the gears of the working class. I didn't hate him because of the holdout, I even thought this would be the year he would silence some of his haters, but he came out and played like Joey Harrington with diabetes.
Russell was set up to fail from the moment he got drafted. Look at the stuff he's had to deal with: the coaching changes, the actual quality of coaches (although at least he didn't have the Art Shell nonsense to deal with), the quality of receivers and OL, the culture of losing in the locker room, the chaos created by the owner and the coach. He didn't help himself with the holdout. But it's highly doubtful he would have succeeded regardless of what he did. I wonder which QBs could have succeeded had they been put in Russell's shoes.
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He only threw 21 passes, and yes I think Gradkowski sucks. Amazingly though, on the same team as Russell, he posted the much better stats.
so since Bruce is an older player, you'd probably be willing to give Russell another shot instead of declaring his bustiness than?
His bust status grows every day. By that I mean his classification as a failure and the size of his man boobs.
Russell is a monumental bust. Terrible work ethic, holds the ball like a loaf of bread, misses wide open receivers, etc. In fact, he's so bad that he got benched for Bruce Gradkowski, and later Charlie Frye. I have the unfortunate privilege of having to watch Oakland Raiders trainwreck on a regular basis. And Russell is freaking terrible.
