Not so fast on Culpepper
Posted by Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer on August 25th, 2007
As he stood in the locker room Friday night, Daunte Culpepper said he felt like the starting quarterback of the Raiders.
Coach Lane Kiffin was not willing to go that far, and in fact had the most praise for Josh McCown, who was the odds-on favorite to start before Culpepper arrived on July 31. McCown was 6-for-9 for 138 yards and led the Raiders to a touchdown and a field goal.
"As you look at it, Josh had three incompletions _ one was a throw away and the other two Mike Williams dropped on him," Kiffin told Bay Area reporters by conference call Saturday afternoon. "Otherwise, he almost plays perfect."
Culpepper was 4-for-8 for 47 yards, beat a blitz for a 19-yard touchdown pass to Ronald Curry and led the Raiders on another drive to the 1 that ended when LaMont Jordan lost a fumble in the end zone.
"Daunte did some some good things as well, too," Kiffin said. "He's still not playing as fast as we'd like him to play because he's still catching up with the offense."
Kiffin said that by playing fast, he wasn't talking about Culpepper's ability to run rather than the ability to think quickly and make decisions in an offense he is still learning.
Bottom line _ Kiffin isn't ready to put the issue to bed.
"I want to take a couple more days here on it and obviously go one way or the other," Kiffin said. "Either name a guy or go one more week."
Kiffin said he planned on viewing cut-ups of all the quarterbacks to watch every snap of all three preseason games. His mission is to determine whether Culpepper, given his learning curve so far, will be far enough along by Sept. 9 to be the starter.
One more thing _ Andrew Walter is still in the race, according to Kiffin.
"Yes he is," Kiffin said. "It's unfortunate that's how the game went, that it wasn't a close game in the fourth qaurter like it was the week before when Josh comes in and he's having to throw to help the team, wheras Andrew's really looking at handing the ball off."
Kiffin may be only 32, but he's got a great poker face and he's not an easy guy to read. He could know beyond a reasonable certainty who will start against the Lions and simply doesn't want to part with the information.
Whatever the reason, on a day when the general tenor of media coverage had Culpepper anointed as the starter, Kiffin went out of his way to say that wasn't the case.
The issue of Culpepper thinking and acting fast is a legtimate concern. Then intensity of the regular season will be like turning a blender from medium to high. Culpepper is running well once he gets his feet under him, but is still prone to the occasional stumble and doesn't always look smooth in the immediate aftermath of the snap.
The four fumbles by Culpepper which occurred in the two previous preseason games is not a new problem. In 85 games as an NFL quarterback, Culpepper has fumbled 84 times (losing 35). The all-time leader in fumbles, Warren Moon, had 161 fumbles but it took him 208 games.
As for Walter, he remains the longshot because of his mobility in an offense which is going to run a high percentage of plays with a moving pocket and different launching points.
The Raiders took a step backward by allowing four sacks against St. Louis, and count on Detroit and all Oakland's other early opponents to bring extra bodies to test their pass blocking skills after last season's debacle.
Opening with Walter, in that scenario, seems unlikely even if he has performed admirably. Even a few people close to Walter thought it might take a year before he could recover and play with the kind of poise he has shown the past few weeks.
More news and notes:
– Multiple dropped passes and potential interceptions continue to plague the Raiders. Williams had two drops, Jerry Porter had two balls go off his hands (pass interference was called on one of them) and Adimchobe Echemandu dropped an easy chance out of the backfield.
"It's very discouraging, and probably the most discouraging thing we have going on right now, is the drops," Kiffin said. "No only on offense, but we don't catch the ball on defense, either. Something's going on here, and we've got to figure out a way to get it fixed, because we've got too many turnovers they're throwing to us that we're dropping, and we're obviously dropping way too many balls on offense."
The most reliable receivers have been tight ends John Madsen and Zach Miller, along with Curry.
"I think it's a real credit to the accuracy of our quarterbacks and how well they're playing, that even with the drops they can still have decent numbers," Kiffin said.
– What will the Raiders final receiving corps look like? The guess here is Curry, Porter, Travis Taylor, Higgins and Williams.
– The center battle between Jake Grove and Jeremy Newberry goes on without a winner.
"Jeremy's more powerful, Jake's quicker, and we're still weighing that in," Kiffin said. "They're very, very close right now."
One possibility, although remote, would be to open with Newberry against 3-4 teams which present an immovable nose guard (Jamal Williams of San Diego comes to mind) and start Grove against matchups which better suit him.
"You don't want to do that too much," Kiffin said. "You'd really like to get in a rhythm of the same quarterback and the same center all working together, so the center's working with those guards. You really don't want to get into that, but it is an option."
– Echemandu's 153 yards rushing leads the NFL in that department, although only 10 of 32 teams have played three preseason games.
– Cornerback Stanford Routt, who practiced last Wednesday, will practice Sunday and possibly face Seattle. Originally, Routt was expected to be out until the opener.
– Fabian Washington was taken to school by Rams veteran Isaac Bruce for a 40-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage and later hurdled by Brian Leonard. Kiffin expressed confidence in Washington, saying, "He's practicing great and he's playing very well, except for a play here or there. It's usually one play per game."
– Kiffin thought defensive tackle Gerard Warren looked rusty in his first appearance with the Raiders. Warren was essentially put on ice by the Broncos for the last two weeks until they found a trade partner.
"We've got to get him into shape," Kiffin said.
– It's conceivable Higgins and Chris Carr could split return duties, with Higgins handling punts and Carr kickoffs.
"It's definitely possible," Kiffin said. "It's going to be irrelevant whichever guy does one. We're going to find the best kick returner, and we're going to find the best punt returner, and it has nothing to do with the other one."
