I think it's funny the heat Kiffin is getting for not playing JaMarcus yet... When we drafted him, at least by message board samples, a majority of Raider fans thought it was best that he be brought along slowly ala Palmer, Culpepper and McNair... When he wasn't signed on time it wasn't a big deal because he wasn't going to see the field anyways...
Now it's 'why isn't he ready Coach?'...
That's a question that should be really directed at the front office because IMO their ineptness has trickled down to the field and effected our coach and unfortunately, our season... If we get him to agree to a contract before drafting him like normal franchises with the #1 overall pick have done in the past, then he would have had some pretty intense time to get prepped to play between the three weeks at Napa he missed, 4 preseason games against live, game speed competion, and another five weeks of in-season work before playing in what probably would have been in week 5 following our bye week...
Instead, the coaches are put in a situation where they not only have to work to get the week's game plan in place with the starting QB and get a late signed Daunte Culpepper up to speed ASAP from scratch with the playbook and ready to play, but also find enough quality snaps for a raw rookie who has been sitting at home for over a month?... Jamarcus doesn't have the benefit of walking into a situation where the scheme has been in place for awhile and being the only one that needed to be brought up to speed like Leinart, Young and Cutler were afforded last year...
I want to see JaMarcus play as much as anyone else, but the reality is nobody can provide valid reasoning outside of "he was the #1 pick and makes big bucks" and "McCown and Pepper suck"...
* Is he outperforming the other guys in practice?...
Playing a guy just because his draft status says that he should be playing is a very quick way to lose a team IMO.... How do you sell the team on the concept that playing is based on merit if you're just handing the million dollar bonus baby the job when his practice performance doesn't merit it?... Creating resentment is not exactly the best way for JaMarcus to develop the leadership ability he'll need... People always hold Roethlisberger up as the ideal for a rookie starter, but let's not gloss over the drama it caused amongst the likes of veteran leaders like Faneca... Winning cured that quickly in Pitt but that's not something likely to happen here...
I'm not concerned with his grasp of the playbook because as mentioned, playbooks can be dumbed down... My thing is with all the blitzes that he is sure to see, does he has the protection checks down pat enough? A QB that can't audible out of vulnerable playcalls against certain blitz calls and an offensive line struggling in pass pro is a pretty volatile mix...
When we play him, I'm sure we'll go to max protect with 2-3 man patterns and go with more quick timing routes out of the shotgun formation, which also serves to limit your playcalls in the run game... Multiple read routes will be out, we'll throw more on first down to avoid certain blitz packages... I'm not concerned that he'll take a beating and lose confidence because he seems to be really even keeled and I don't see him going fetal when hit like a Joey Harrington did, but I am concerned with the bad habits this kind of situation can often produce... Dumbed down offenses with simple pass routes lead to QB's forcing the ball and throwing into double coverages... Having minimal receivers out in pattern while max protecting lead to QB's holding onto the ball too long when the primary is covered... Protection issues and blitzes lead to QB's throwing off their back foot and bad release points... He already had a lot of footwork and technique issues coming in, who knows if that has been satisfactorly resolved or if playing under the constant duress of a pass rush will have him reverting back to what he has been comfortable with all these years... and let's not forget that we are often forced to move the pocket because we are so weak at OT so werew are also asking him to be accurate on the move...I just would hate to see him develop long term bad habits ala David Carr... If having these kind of concerns makes me a 'babysitter', so be it... I've certainly been called worse...
I'd rather trade long term success for the short term satisfaction of seeing him out there even if it means another couple of weeks or months of spares like McCown and Culpepper... That the head coach and both starting WR's have felt he wasn't ready yet sends up a huge red flag for me personally... WR's are the most selfish, stat conscience, impatient breed in the game... They should be calling for the change considering they haven't been able to stat up with the current guys... That they aren't just sets off the Spidey Sense in a big way...
Bottom line for me is because there is no actual visual evidence to go on, I'm going to have more trust in guys that have seen him perform in practices to determine when he should be in there because the fans have NOTHING but LSU highlight clips to go on... We don't even have the 'he looked great against the Forty Niners in preseason' to hang our hats on like we did Andrew Walter...
We jacked this thing up from the jump... If we wanted him to play this year we should have been more aggressive in getting him signed before the draft and had more of a sense of urgency in getting him into camp... If we didn't expect him to play, we should have have made Jeff Garcia an offer he couldn't refuse after Kiffin deemed him a good fit for what he wanted to do... Instead we trade for the guy who was supposed to keep the seat warm for a month, then we give a pretty good sum of money to a big name guy who was then expected to keep the seat warm for the year and now with those two plans failed we're rushing the rookie down the wedding aisle... It's just this kind of piss poor FUBAR planning by the guys that "do the grocery shopping" that has had this team in the toilet since 2002...
I'm looking forward to see the big rookie play especially since I really wanted to draft him, but I'm not looking forward to all the inevitable "he's a bust" comments when he doesn't come out perfroming like he's dipped in gold because I really don't think we've done a good job of putting him in position to succeed at all... If Kiffin and Knapp truely feel he's not ready based on practice and classroom work, then I'd rather see them hold their water than give in to pressure... If they feel he's a go and that he's EARNED the chance to play, then let's get him out there even if it's with a limited playbook...
We have some good young players, but our overall talent level falls somewhere between the 4-12 through 6-10 range... The sad thing is even playing it as close to the vest as we've been forced to do, we could have been in the thick of things with just average QB play (and a defense that stepped up a few times in the back half of 4th quarters)... The shame is the QB thing could have been rectified if the gawddam front office hadn't been asleep at the wheel IMO... I swear I would give up our next three #1 picks to get a guy like Scott Pioli in here...
~XXOO
The Baby Sitter
