Ghosts of Seasons Past: 5 players who have haunted the Oakland Raiders
1. JaMarcus Russell
Ah the center of Raider Nation nightmares everywhere. Grabbing the top spot of players On this list is none other then JaMarcus Russell. Figuring out where to start within his saga was the hardest part of putting together this article.
Coming out of LSU Russell was a sight to be seen. Heading into the draft, he stood 6 foot 6 and weighed in at 265 pounds. He ran a 4.8 40-yard dash and could throw the ball 70 yards from his knees. He was nothing like anything anyone had ever seen before.
The Raiders held the first overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft. Coming off of a 2006 year where the quarterback duties were split between Andrew Walter and Aaron Brooks, the Raiders were in a great position to get their QB of the future. Pairing first year head coach Lane Kiffin with the guy who’s going to lead his team and giving him a young mind to mold seemed like the perfect spot to be in.
Perfect that is, if said coach actually had wanted said quarterback. It seemed like a no brainer taking Jamarcus 1st overall to everyone except Kiffin, who much preferred Georgia Tech WR Calvin Johnson.
Needless to say Al Davis fell in love with Russell’s physical ability and the fact he blew everyone away at the NFL combine. The Raiders took him No. 1 overall and so the short saga of the Jamarcus Russell era began in Oakland.
Russell played a total of 31 games over 3 seasons for the Raiders. Over those 3 seasons he accumulated 4,083 passing yards, 18 TDs and 23 INT. It was everything that transpired during those 3 years that really made this one hurt for Raider Nation.
Story after story started to surface of how lazy Russell was, how he would continuously fall asleep in film sessions and show up late to meetings. The most infamous story about his time in Oakland is how the Raiders would give him blank tapes to see if he was watching the film they would give him. He would report back the next day saying everything looked great and he had watched them all.
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His rookie contract was a 6 year/$61 million dollar contract that guaranteed him $32 million. When it was all said and done the Raiders had paid him a little over $39 million and Jamarcus Russell will forever go down in history as one of the biggest busts in the NFL let alone the quarterback position.