Life After Palmer: Oakland’s Return to Relevancy Starts with Moving On at Quarterback
Super Bowl XLVII will mark the tenth anniversary of the last time the Oakland Raiders played in football’s biggest game.
It’s been a long decade for the Silver and Black. There have been few if any highlights, as the top stories in regard to the Oakland Raider franchise during that time were the drafting and subsequent failure of JaMarcus Russell and the death of Al Davis.
The only positive to take from the last ten years is the fact that the Raiders did, in fact hit rock bottom. There was a period, if only a short one, where they were the laughing stock of the league. It is my firm belief that those dark days hardened the games hardest fanbase even more. You’ve been the punching bag. You’ve taken your lumps. It can only get better.
To a certain extent, it has gotten better. Over the past couple of seasons, though the Raiders are rarely the favorite heading into their games, nobody rules them out of any matchup completely. Sure there have been letdowns, but you can only have letdowns when you have expectations. We can again expect the Raiders to compete, but that’s not enough for Silver and Black nation.
The phrase “This is a Quarterback driven league” is no cliche. It is a fact. The last seven Super Bowl winning quarterbacks were selected in the first 32 picks of their respective draft classes. The guy who won the two Super Bowls before that goes by the name “Brady.” You need an elite quarterback to win a championship in today’s NFL.
Carson Palmer has been a fine stop-gap measure recently, but sooner rather than later, general manager Reggie McKenzie is going to have to take the plunge and go after a franchise quarterback of the future. He’ll need to do so with a first round pick.
Don’t let that scare you. I hear people all the time talk about how risky it is to take a quarterback in the first round. That’s just not true. Sure, when they fail (i.e. Russell), you hear about it. But the fact remains that we don’t dwell on all of the first round quarterbacks who succeed and become starters. In fact, heading into week eight, 24 of the NFL’s 32 teams list a quarterback taken in the top 32 picks of his draft class on top of their depth charts.
That list includes the Raiders and Carson Palmer. Sadly, Palmer is a shell of the player that he was two or three years into what was once a promising young career. In fact, not since the third year of his career has he sustained a quarterback rating of 90 or better throughout an entire season. Not since 2006 has Palmer posted numbers that anyone would consider elite.
The 2012 Oakland Raiders have a collection of young talent at the skill positions that is likely to peak in the next 3-4 years. When they do, they’ll need a young and talented signal caller who also has the ability to make plays on his own to win games peaking with them. Carson Palmer won’t be that guy. That guy could be waiting for the Raiders to draft him in the middle of the first round of the 2013 draft.
The Raiders will likely draft somewhere between 6 and 20 in the first round of 2013. Guys like Aaron Murray of Georgia, Tyler Wilson of Arkansas, and Landry Jones of Oklahoma could all be there when the Raiders draft. Expect Reggie McKenzie to pull the trigger on one of them. When he does, expect that player to succeed immediately as a combined result of simplified playbooks that cater to young quarterback and the raw talent on the offensive side of Oakland’s roster.
With a young and energetic head coach, a football savvy G.M., and a wealth of talent at their disposal, the Oakland Raiders are poised to take a giant leap back to relevancy. Carson Palmer cannot be part of that leap.
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There is some relevancy to Palmer. Sure, he is getting up there in age and won’t be around forever, but to say that he is a shell of the QB he was is a little harsh, considering he has been carrying the offense the last couple of weeks. The part I agree on is that we need to draft a younger QB in the first round, but we don’t need to throw him into the fire right away or kick Palmer to the curb like that. With a guy like him, there is a golden opportunity for mentorship. Palmer has the skillset to be elite. He just has never really had the talent and scheme around him that matches to his strengths. You compare him to Brady and that is a bad comparison. Brady has a great system around him. So did Hostetler, Dilfer, Brad Johnson, to name a few (all SB winners). All they had to do was manage the game and not do anything to cost their team a win and the team would take care of the rest. The one year Palmer had that in Cincy, he was a victim of a cheapshot by guess who… The Pittsburgh Steelers! I say draft the young QB and let him grow under a seasoned veteran.
I respectfully disagree. CP isn’t Brady or Rodgers but have you seen the rest of the league?? There’s a whole lot of not that great out there. CP isn’t the problem. O-line and receivers could certainly use an upgrade. Seems like CP is running for his life most of the time. Does DHB ever get open?
Love the site…but just feel differently on this issue.
Make it three who disagree…CP3 is anything but a shell of his former self! Last year means nothing!
Here’s a thought to consider….Peyton Manning is 3+ years older and not a “shell” of his former self. The problem in Oakland is they are building an offense around a system while Denver is building around Peytons’ strengths.
Shoud the OL grasp the the system or DA “make” Knapp adjust, then the world will see CP3 for the talent he is and stop talking bologna!
this team is bad. we should have kept jason campbell if we did we might have gone somewhere. another bad pick was mcfadden he sucks all the experts say if he is healthy we will win… well where is it? seems to me that its just like obama lots of claims with very little results. we need to stop thowing our draft picks in the toilet, and stop taking all the other teams castoffs. use your brains.