The Las Vegas Raiders are one of the most historic franchises in the history of the NFL. The mystique surrounding the Silver and Black has always kept people interested, no matter how poor the team is performing.
Several legendary players are still popular in NFL circles as commentators, minority owners or coaches. The Raiders also have the strongest alumni base in the league, and it is not particularly close.
Given this immense amount of attention paid to the great players that have come through the franchise, these players still have a strong and respected voice, both to Raider Nation and the NFL in general.
Tim Brown compared Ashton Jeanty to the wrong Raiders running back
On Tuesday, former Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown spoke on the Up & Adams show. While he is arguably the greatest player in the illustrious history of the organization, Brown's player comparison for rookie running back Ashton Jeanty was a bit puzzling.
"The guy that he really reminds me of is Napoleon Kaufman," Brown said. "I think Napoleon came into the league very undersized body, or whatever. But I mean, he had the ability to return punts and kicks and do a lot of great things. And his ability to hit a hole and explode was really, really amazing."
Kaufman was certainly a solid player for the Raiders after being selected No. 18 overall in the 1995 NFL Draft. However, his career was largely looked upon as underwhelming considering he only eclipsed 1,000 rushing yards on one occasion and was out of football in six years.
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During the pre-draft process, Jeanty was compared to legendary players like Barry Sanders, LaDainian Tomlinson and legendary Raider Marcus Allen. However, despite these comparisons being commonplace, Brown went another direction.
He did acknowledge some differences between the two players, but they mainly pertained to the differing workloads that they were expected to shoulder as rookies.
"Now he may be asked to do even more (than what Kaufman did)," Brown said. "Nap(oleon) wasn't asked to carry the load as much, I think he was sharing it with Tyrone Wheatley and a couple other guys. Jeanty, it's gonna be all on him. It's gonna be all on him to carry the load with the running game and hopefully he can get that done."
Las Vegas will certainly need Jeanty to produce more than Kaufman's 490 rushing yards during his rookie campaign if this team wants to have a fighting chance in the AFC West. While this comparison may have been disappointing, Brown may simply be tempering expectations for Raider Nation. He finished his segment with a vote of confidence for the young player:
"I think this guy is gonna be great for the Raiders," Brown said. "I'm really looking forward to seeing him play."