Can the

**Artois** · 05-21-2010, 04:22 PM

Period of silence for Russell - NFL - Yahoo! Sports

"Period of silence for Russell

By Jason Cole, Yahoo! Sports

While the debate continues whether recently dumped Oakland Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell(notes) is the biggest bust in NFL draft history, don’t expect the former No. 1 pick to defend himself publicly anytime soon.

For one, Russell headed to Arizona this week to start losing weight, according to two sources close to the player. Apparently, Russell is again more than 300 pounds and is looking to drop at least 25 before trying to sign with another franchise to revive his moribund career.

Second, Russell isn’t planning to do any interviews anytime soon because, well, there’s nothing he can really say that’s going to sound good to anyone around the NFL.

“If he complains about how he was handled in Oakland, that’s going to come off like he’s not taking responsibility,” said one of the sources close to Russell. “If he takes all the blame, it sounds noble but it’s not going to mean anything. He just has to get in shape and get himself in a situation where he can turn everything around.”

A key to turning things around is improving the basics that so failed him in three seasons with the Raiders. Right now, Russell is seen as a fundamental and mechanical mess.

“It’s so bad that his mechanics are even completely screwed up,” a second source close to Russell said. “There’s stuff they go over in high school that he hasn’t worked on the past three years.”

Some of Russell’s issues may speak to the franchise’s dysfunction as much as Russell’s well-documented lack of dedication.

Andrew Walter(notes), Oakland’s third-round pick in 2005, didn’t last long with the New England Patriots after being cut by the Raiders in July 2009. Another strong-armed passer, the Patriots concluded he was too big a project and released him in September.

“It was like six things he was doing wrong on every play,” said a Patriots source who also used the high school analogy. “It was impossible to coach him because there was too much to correct. … You just stood there and wondered, ‘What the heck happened to this guy?’ ”

In terms of Russell, the NFL should do a case study in how his career has been mismanaged so far, starting with the contract dispute that allowed him to miss all of his first training camp to how Russell, a guy with little self-motivation, was empowered by Raiders management when Lane Kiffin was fired.

All of that said, Russell has been such a catastrophic failure in his brief career that it’s very unlikely any team is seriously considering signing him at this point. Russell is only 24 years old and still possesses one of the great arms in the history of the game, yet he’s currently radioactive because he has been ruined through a combination of his own lack of effort and the ineffectiveness of the Raiders."

Period of silence for Russell - NFL - Yahoo! Sports

Another JR thread, but it's Raider related because the article makes a good point about our last two home grown QB's being unsound mechanically. I guess it makes me happy that we now have a QB trained by another team who isn't too old.

**UptownXguy3** · 05-21-2010, 05:07 PM

jamarcus russell plus a interview don't make me laugh...No one expects him to speak because we know he really can't be interviewed. He has never said anything worth quoting his entire career.

**silver & black** · 05-21-2010, 05:57 PM

Not there's anything wrong with discussing the fat one, but...

**BVJ** · 05-21-2010, 07:50 PM

He isn't an Oakland Raider man.. let him go. He's gone.

**JQNJRaider** · 05-21-2010, 08:29 PM

I actually feel bad for him in the sense that I think there is something mentally wrong. I know he's rich and I know he didn't do what a true pro is supposed to do by trying to make themselves a better player, person and man. I just think back to some of his interviews and feel like he was missing something upstairs. Maybe it was his age and the influence of people he was surrounded by, but I can't help but think of one of his horrendous games where in the post game interviews he basically said that he thought he played well. I forget what game it was, but personally for me, that was the game that I thought there was something seriously wrong with our QB.

**greg** · 05-21-2010, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by Artois

Another JR thread, but it's Raider related because the article makes a good point about our last two home grown QB's being unsound mechanically. I guess it makes me happy that we now have a QB trained by another team who isn't too old.

There has not been a home grown Raider quarterback success since Stabler. Very obviously, the Raiders, as an organization, are incapable of growing quarterbacks, and I hope they never try again. Even draft picks in the later rounds are just wastes.

**VEfreak** · 05-21-2010, 09:37 PM

Originally Posted by JQNJRaider

I actually feel bad for him in the sense that I think there is something mentally wrong. I know he's rich and I know he didn't do what a true pro is supposed to do by trying to make themselves a better player, person and man. I just think back to some of his interviews and feel like he was missing something upstairs. Maybe it was his age and the influence of people he was surrounded by, but I can't help but think of one of his horrendous games where in the post game interviews he basically said that he thought he played well. I forget what game it was, but personally for me, that was the game that I thought there was something seriously wrong with our QB.

He probably messed up his brain by washing down sizzurp with Old English