We Worked Out Culpepper...

[SoCalRaider]

That's a win-win deal if I ever saw one. Say what you will, but you can't be that dull and broker a deal like that. Be real curious to see how quickly DC can pick up this new system.

 

[R4Life]

Davis sees some Plunkett in Culpepper

David White, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, August 2, 2007
Daunte Culpepper (left) stretches with fellow quarterback...

Raiders owner Al Davis took one look at Daunte Culpepper, and into the time machine he flew, all the way to 1980 when he said the Raiders were picked to finish last and Jim Plunkett was in dire need of reclamation.

"The only thing I can say about Culpepper right now is he takes me back several years," Davis said at a news conference Wednesday at the Napa Valley Marriott, the training camp home of the Raiders. "He had great years, just never had a chance. Jim Plunkett never had a chance where he was. That was unfair."

Plunkett came off the bench and led the Raiders to a Super Bowl victory that year and won the game's MVP award. What Davis would give for Culpepper to capture a sliver of that comeback success this season, especially in the shadow of the worst four-year stretch in franchise history.

Granted, the Raiders are more than one player away from turning around their program. By signing Culpepper to a one-year contract worth $3.2 million, they showed they are willing to try anything at this point - even if it means bringing in a quarterback who's had two major knee surgeries in less than two years.

"Any time you're a great competitor and people doubt you, it's absolute fuel to overcome whatever they're saying or shut them up in a sense," Culpepper said.

Well, here's his chance and if it works, Davis looks like a genius circa 1980 again. To think, none of this likely would have happened if No. 1 overall draft pick JaMarcus Russell - often described as a young Culpepper - was signed and in camp by now.

The LSU quarterback is still sitting out, Davis said, because his agents wants all the guaranteed money (up to $30 million) to be an option bonus. The Raiders want nothing to do with that after a recent grievance ruling deemed option bonuses to be nonrefundable in many cases.

"I will not do that," Davis said.

He will, however, give a one-year deal to a veteran quarterback whose last healthy season was in 2004, when Culpepper threw for 4,717 yards and 39 touchdowns with Randy Moss and the Minnesota Vikings.

The Raiders haven't had those sorts of quarterback numbers since Rich Gannon was the league MVP in 2002, and yes, Culpepper also reminds Davis of Gannon.

"We've always had a lot of quarterbacks around," Davis said. "In recent years, we stopped that. And then, the minute somebody gets hurt, we've found ourselves in trouble. Daunte was a great talent. Whether he can get it back or not, it's worth the chance."

That was the case in 2003 and '04, when Gannon was lost for each season with injuries. Same thing last year, when Aaron Brooks was hurt in the second game and the Raider' offense never got going.

Culpepper said all is well with his knee, and that he has no intention to sit behind Russell, Josh McCown or Andrew Walter on the depth chart.

He took about five snaps in 11-on-11 drills Wednesday morning, throwing two passes and fumbling a snap exchange. Coach Lane Kiffin said Culpepper will be worked in slowly while he learns the new playbook, and that he eventually will get equal snaps with Walter and McCown.

That's called getting a chance, something the Dolphins weren't willing to offer after Culpepper passed a physical in the offseason. They traded for former Chiefs quarterback Trent Green and released Culpepper two weeks ago.

That's another Davis reminder of Plunkett, who was discarded by the 49ers before he joined the Raiders.

"It's very refreshing to know that I got a chance to come in and play and contribute to a great team," Culpepper said. "Coach Kiffin and his staff are very, very keen on being successful and they let me know that off the top."

All this has Davis smiling, ready to relive the past all over again.

"Lane made the final decision," Davis said, "but I wanted it to happen. I like to take chances like that."

-- Al Davis was expansive in what's become an annual rite of training camp, his state of the Raiders address. D3

E-mail David White at [email protected].

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/02/SP9MRBFIL2.DTL

 

[jatfly]

-- More on Culpepper's Contract --
Thu Aug 2, 2007 --from FFMastermind.com

NFL.com's Adam Schefter reports Oakland Raiders QB Daunte Culpepper's one year deal includes many incentives. Acting as his own agent, Culpepper negotiated a one-year deal with the Raiders that could be worth as little as $750,000 or as much as $5.5 million, which just happens to be the salary Miami had been scheduled to pay him this season. Culpepper's contract calls for him to make $750,000 in guaranteed money. If he's on the Raiders roster the first game of the season, he'll make $2.6 million and that will increase to $3.2 million after six games. Culpepper also has up to $500,000 in play-time incentives and another $1.65 in hard-to-earn performance and play-time incentives. If Culpepper has a Pro-Bowl caliber year and the Raiders win the Super Bowl, the quarterback would make $5.5 million. In the event the Raiders do not win the Super Bowl but Culpepper still plays well, he could make up to $4 million this season. But if Culpepper plays strong this year -- and he's expecting he will -- then the real riches really await. Culpepper is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent after this season.

 

[Angry Pope]

The Raiders' one-year rental of Daunte Culpepper a solid move for both parties

By Trent Modglin

Aug. 2, 2007

Imagine sitting on your couch at home or your desk at work last year, we’ll say on Aug. 2 for the sake of continuity, and I told you that not only will the Raiders draft LSU QB JaMarcus Russell with the first overall pick in 2007, but Daunte Culpepper will report to Oakland’s training camp before Russell. Oh, and Randy Moss won’t be catching any of Culpepper’s passes, but Tom Brady’s instead.

Weird, huh? Doubtful you would’ve believed me. But that is life in the NFL. Things can change just that quickly. And quite often do.

As for the Culpepper deal, here’s how I see it working in favor of both parties.

First, from the Raiders’ perspective:

Aaron Brooks was washed up. That much was obvious last season, and a one-year experiment came to a end with his release after the season. Inexperienced Andrew Walter wasn’t much better in his eight starts. In fact, you could say he was worse, especially with the way he sensed pressure, or didn’t sense it, if you want to be more accurate.

So they made a move for the future, drafting Russell and trading for Josh McCown, a journeyman backup with some credible traits but lacking in starting experience and long-term luster.

The belief was that McCown would start the season before giving way to Russell, the mountain of a man with a laser arm. Maybe it would be four games McCown would start in an effort to avoid rushing Russell, to properly groom him. Perhaps even eight or 16, but no one believed 2008 didn’t belong to Russell, provided he was ready to take the reins of course.

Russell is unsigned. It’s been six days of training camp, and his agents and the club are apparently no closer to a deal than they were months ago. With each passing day, the chances of him catching a whiff of the field as a rookie are reduced, and sources close to the team are blaming, at least in part, the inexperience of the Raiders’ new negotiating team that may have too many chefs in the kitchen at this point without Bruce Allen or Mike Lombardi around any longer.

Both McCown and Russell showed glimpses of good things during summer workouts, but the Raiders need assurances that if McCown doesn’t step up when the spotlight is on, or Russell isn’t ready for NFL defenses, they can still move forward with a serviceable option for the immediate rebuilding process.

And apparently, they saw enough in Culpepper when working him out on Monday and Tuesday to feel like he was far enough removed from the knee injury that derailed his career to take a chance. So they signed him. A former Pro Bowl talent with physical skills few have ever shown at the position, on the cheap no doubt, and just for one year, which fits their plans like a glove.

Russell is the future. There is no question there. And Culpepper, if things work out, is the one-year bridge, a safety net if he’s healthy who should put fans in the seats and some excitement in the game plan.

Minimal risk, enormous upside.

From Culpepper’s perspective:

Culpepper said he had eight criteria for evaluating the teams interested in his services, and Oakland met the most of them. When the Dolphins tried to trade him in July, takers were as scarce as a bottle of pinot grigio at a NASCAR race. When he was released and became a free agent, he visited just two teams in two weeks — Tampa Bay and Oakland. Baltimore and Jacksonville reportedly entertained thoughts, but neither sent a plane for him.

The good news for Culpepper is that the knee that he blew out in 2005 with the Vikings is deemed to be fully healed by doctors. Culpepper fooled the Dolphins into thinking he was ready when Week One rolled around last season, but rustiness was apparent. He couldn’t pull away from a blitzing linebacker, couldn’t sidestep people in the pocket, couldn’t react in time and was generally erratic. For the first time in years, he looked unsure of himself, and was eventually given more time to rehab, then more surgery, then shown to the physically-unable-to-perform list.

A third surgery to clean things up followed in January, and with the Dolphins’ pursuit of Trent Green in the spring, his time in Miami was done. Now, he gets another chance, a third chance, at success in the NFL. He found plenty in Minnesota not all that long ago, but that seems like a distant memory these days.

Culpepper, essentially, is a rental. Like you rent a car for a weekend vacation or a tuxedo for a wedding, the Raiders are renting Culpepper to help bring the offense back to respectability. To show Russell the way (but not necessarily to the dining hall buffet), to mentor. As players, physically, they look like they could nearly be twins anyway.

He is there for one year. That could be, and very well is, all the time he’ll have in Oakland. It’s his one-year audition for the rest of the NFL. And perhaps for the rest of his career. One year to prove that knee is sound, his skills and confidence haven’t eroded and that he’s worthy of a long-term contract and another chance as a starting quarterback. And all he has to beat out is Walter, McCown and Russell, who, though immensely talented, will need some seasoning. And Russell has to sign on the dotted line first. Not exactly the most daunting odds Culpepper has ever faced.

But the issues standing in Culpepper’s way, however, are plentiful. Try a porous offensive line that surrendered a league-high 72 sacks last season. Lingering bruises on the quarterbacks are probably still evident with how hard they were hit last year. Some of the blocking woes were due to poor coaching from a staff that was jettisoned, but fault also has to lie on the backs of the 300-pounders in front. The Raiders are also lacking a true No. 1 option in the receiving corps, and Kiffin, though having created a better vibe in the locker room, is an NFL infant at 32 years of age.

Things of course will get more interesting when Russell finally does join his teammates in Napa, Calif. How do you think the reps will be distributed among four quarterbacks, all of whom are new to the system, one of whom is trying to revive his career and one whom is trying to get his rolling by playing catch-up? There will hardly be enough to go around to get somebody prepared for September.

But that is then, and this is now. In terms of Culpepper signing, it got done because there were mutual needs at play here. Desperate times call for desperate measures, even in the NFL. And though I see it as a success on both fronts, this certainly qualifies.

 

[Angry Pope]

Take it for what it is worth...

NFL Odds - Culpepper Barely Budges Raiders Total

Betus.com

By Cliff Vicious

The NFL betting world isn’t falling over itself to put money on the Oakland Raiders. Their latest acquisition should eventually give the bandwagon a little nudge.

With only two quarterbacks in camp and unwilling to wait for JaMarcus Russell to sign on the dotted line, the Raiders inked Daunte Culpepper to a one-year deal on Tuesday. The total on regular-season Oakland wins before the Culpepper deal was five. After… still five. Don’t be surprised if the chalk starts moving toward the “over” side of the bargain. At press time, the NFL odds had the over priced as a slight underdog at –105, with the under at –125.

There was already plenty of optimism among the Black Hole cognoscenti that the Raiders would at least treble their win total after last year’s 2-14 (6-10 against the spread) debacle. Russell has the potential to be Oakland’s franchise QB, and he also represents an immediate upgrade over Aaron Brooks and Andrew Walter, who combined for six touchdown passes and 21 interceptions in 2006. But the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft is reportedly far apart from the Raiders in their contract negotiations. The longer he stays away from training camp, the more likely he will be holding a clipboard this season.

Russell wasn’t Oakland’s only draft-day acquisition. The Raiders wisely traded for ex-Lions pivot Josh McCown as an insurance policy, yet that’s a policy they would prefer not to cash in, based on McCown’s four frustrating seasons (25 TDs, 29 picks) with the Arizona Cardinals. Although Culpepper has mobility issues after wrecking his knee two years ago, after sitting out most of 2006, he should have little trouble beating out McCown and Walter for the starting job.

This is a positive move for both team and player. Culpepper wanted a one-year deal in order to prove the league that he can still perform at a Pro-Bowl level, looking forward to a big-money deal in 2008. Motivation will not be a concern. As for the Raiders, this deal puts pressure on the Russell camp to sign, and it does so without placing a major obstacle in Russell’s development path. Instead, Culpepper will act as a short-term mentor once Russell does join the Raiders.

Oakland has more work to do before fans can start taking those paper bags off their heads. But the Culpepper signing was yet another step in the right direction.