How good will JaMarcus Russell be at the Pro Level?

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

In the long range statistics like that don't lie. Bad luck is a pick or two here and there. A sustained effort of poor results is bad personell acquisition any way you slice it.

Is five years really long range though?

In 2006 the Raiders were starting (at the start of the year) Robert Gallery, Barry Sims, Jake Grove, Brad Badger, and Langston Walker. Sims was with the team when they were making deep playoff runs as the LT, but moved inside to make room for Gallery. Badger was a FA signing.

The draft picks of the bunch were Gallery, Walker, and Grove. ALL were top two round selections. Walker was picked with one of the compensatory picks for Gruden.

I'm hesitant to say that it's the Raiders' fault for making 2 bad selections and an alright one in Grove (the consensus best lineman on that team). They invested a lot into Walker and Gallery and got no return.

But they are offensive linemen. It's hard to collect data on them. You have film and nothing else. Despite that MOST OL pan out. The Raiders managed to stumble on 2-3 busts. That's pretty unlucky. I mean if I spent 5 top 2 round picks on lineman, I would expect at least 4 to live up to the hype. The Raiders took 3 and got nobody to live up to the hype. Either the rest of the league knows something about OL the Raiders don't (which is always possible), or the Raiders just got the shaft.

It's not like they aren't building that team the right way. They just aren't getting the right men for the jobs.