Jeff Garcia and 21 other Raiders who could be cut

The quarterback controversy that never was.

Jeff Garcia was supposed to be the old, wily vet who was going to come in and show the youngster JaMarcus Russell a few tricks of the trade he’s picked up along the way. Instead, about all Garcia has done is make Russell fell uncomfortable every time he walks into the locker room sporting leather pants.

Garcia sat out almost all of training camp with a calf injury and when he has played in the preseason he’s turned every play into a fire drill.  Based on his performances, it seems like he couldn’t even execute a simple handoff to Darren McFadden without running suicide drills along the line of scrimmage. Yes, he has spent his time playing with the second string o-line but so too has Bruce Gradkowski who has outplayed Garcia in the preseason.

Here is my best guess at what the Raiders’ 53-man roster will look like after the final round of cuts is completed.

QB (3): JaMarcus Russell, Bruce Gradkowski, Charlie Frye

Cut: Jeff Garcia – Frye hasn’t been great but he’s athletic and has done about well as you can hope for a guy that  only had a few months to learn the system.

RB (5): Darren McFadden, Michael Bush, Justin Fargas, Oren O’Neal, Gary Russell

Cut: Luke Lawton, Marcel Reece, Louis Rankin – Rankin played his way onto an NFL roster in Seattle last night.

WR (6): Darrius Heyward-Bey, Chaz Schilens, Johnnie Lee Higgins, Javon Walker, Louis Murphy, Nick Miller – Mark my words, Mark Wahlberg will play Miller on-screen one day.

Cut: Todd Watkins, Jonathan Holland

TE (3): Zach Miller, Tony Stewart, Brandon Myers – Myers is the biggest surprise of the draft class. Who knew he would be such a threat in the passing game?

Cut: Darrell Strong

OL (9): Mario Henderson, Robert Gallery, Samson Satele, Cooper Carlisle, Cornell Green, Khalif Barnes, Erik Pears, Chris Morris, John Wade

Cut: Mark Wilson, Seth Wand, Paul McQuistan, James Marten

DL (9): Tommy Kelly, Gerard Warren, Greg Ellis, Trevor Scott, Desmond Bryant, Jay Richardson, Matt Shaughnessy, William Jospeh, Ryan Boschetti

Cut: Greyson Gunheim, Terdell Sands – Finally!

LB (6): Kirk Morrison, Thomas Howard, Ricky Brown, Jon Alston, Isaiah Ekejiuba, Slade Norris

Cut: David Nixon, Morlon Greenwood, Chris O’Neill, Sam Williams – See Terdell Sands

DB(9): Nnamdi Asomugha, Chris Johnson, Hiram Eugene, Tyvon Branch, Stanford Routt, John Bowie, Michael Huff, Michael Mitchell, Rashad Baker

Cut: Jerome Boyd, Michael Hawkins, Darrick Brown, Justin Miller – Can’t cover and Nick Miller made him expendable in the return game.

Special Teams (3): Sebastian Janikowski, Shane Lechler, Jon Condo

Cut: Ricky Schmitt – He’ll be on an NFL roster in 2009.

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