This years NFL Draft once again features a quarterback in the mix to be chosen with the first pick overall. In previous years quarterbacks had been the recent trend with the first overall pick, teams selected quarterbacks Alex Smith ('05), Eli Manning ('04), Carson Palmer ('03), David Carr ('02), Michael Vick ('01) and the list continues down to Payton Manning ('98) with Courtney Brown ('00) and Mario Williams ('06) being the lone exceptions. Don't worry NFL fans this year seems to continue on with this trend. JaMarcus Russell from LSU seems to be the obvious pick for the pitiful Oakland Raiders. Russell is a freak of an athlete and is a proven winner. His only negative traits that scouts can try to bring him down on are his inconsistencies throughout his college career and the fear of being over-hyped from his outstanding bowl game against Notre Dame. I on the other hand see these traits as signs of greatness for his career in the NFL.
Russell was a highly touted recruit when he signed with Nick Saban and the LSU Tigers out of high school. He split playing time during his freshman year with then senior Brian Randall and had a shaky quarterback rating of 127.19. Russell's sophomore year he was named the starter from the on set and was inconsistent throughout the season posting a mediocre 136.56 quarterback rating, yet he still won 10 games. Then during his junior season he cemented himself as one of the great quarterbacks in LSU's history as he played well all year and posted a career best 167.03 quarterback rating, putting him in the top five rated passers, and once again led them to an 11 win season. Russell capped this great season with one of the more impressive bowl game performances in recent memory. So when JaMarcus declared himself eligible for the NFL draft and decided to forgo his senior year at LSU the critiquing began. I compare Russell's college career to a few quarterbacks from recent drafts that both were the first quarterback taken in their drafts and so far have done great things in the NFL.
Carson Palmer was also a highly touted recruit when he arrived on campus at USC and from the very beginning he was fighting for time. Palmer's career at SC during his first four years was plagued by injuries and inconsistent play. Yet his senior year he posted a career high 149.08 quarterback rating, putting him in the top five rated quarterbacks, and he also led the Men of Troy to an impressive 11 win season and won the 2002 Heisman Trophy. Then to put the icing on the cake for his career he had a dominating performance in SC's Orange Bowl win against the Iowa Hawkeyes. Palmer then went first overall to the Cincinnati Bengals and in his first years in the league has shown himself to be a top echelon quarterback that almost any franchise would love to have.
Vince Young was not only a highly touted recruit out of high school, but he was the number one ranked recruit in all of high school when he signed with Mack Brown and the University of Texas. Vince red-shirted his freshman year at UT and didn't see the field until his red-shirt freshman season when he split time with Chance Mock. He was viewed manly as a running threat and hardly threw the football. Then his sophomore year Vince took over the starting job full-time and as expected was inconsistent the whole year, but he stilled has flashes of brilliance that kept Texas fans excited. That year Vince had a quarterback rating of 128.37 that put him in the bottom third of all college quarterbacks. Vince turned it around his junior year at Texas and led UT to a undefeated regular season and it pains me to say this, but he had the single most impressive performance in a bowl game and single-handily beat my beloved USC Trojans to win the 2005 National Championship. During the championship season Vince posted a career best 163.95 quarterback rating that also placed him in the top five rated passers that year. Vince then declared early for the NFL draft and was taken with the third overall pick by the Tennessee Titans. He then went on to have a impressive rookie year that included a trip to the Pro Bowl and being name the Offensive Rookie of the Year.
I personally see the similarities between these three quarterbacks as a sign of things to come for the Raiders. These are just the comparisons that I see and make between two NFL Pro Bowl quarterbacks and the potential first overall pick. First off all three of them were very inconsistent during their first years of playing but during their final year were all rated in the top five rated quarterbacks. Then they all capped their amazing final seasons with extremely impressive bowl wins against quality opponents. I know that many similarities have been drawn to Daunte Culpepper due to their similar physical characteristics and that bodes well for JaMarcus as well I mean what did Culpepper do with the Minnesota Vikings except win games and throw touchdown passes to Randy Moss, oh wait who is his number one receiver in Oakland again???
Clay Jackson
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