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Cutting JaMarcus would save $6.45 million

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Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on April 25, 2010 12:03 PM ET

The Oakland Raiders have already paid JaMarcus Russell $36 million for a whole lot of nothing. So do they now view him as a sunk cost or could they possibly pour more money down the drain? The Raiders can save $6.45 million by cutting Russell before the start of the season. Russell has said in the past he won't take a pay cut, and that's far too much money to pay for a guy if he's Jason Campbell's backup. Tom Cable said there are "decisions" to be made at quarterback, but expects Russell to attend Oakland's post-draft minicamp Friday. We'll see. The Raiders would be risking the $6.45 million by keeping Russell in the offseason. They would owe him the money if he got hurt in workouts and placed on injured reserve. The San Francisco Chronicle believes Cable hinted at Russell's departure: "Adding Jason [Campbell] to this football team was very important," Cable said. "He is a guy in need of a fresh start himself." The Raiders are an organization in need of fresh start. That can only happen with Russell elsewhere.

In an otherwise very, very good draft (if McCalin is truly healthy), it seems utterly inexplicable to understand why the Raiders passed up Clausen - especially when he was available late in the draft.  Ostensibly, the reason why the Raiders have not cut Russell, is likely tied to the very same reason the Raiders did not draft Clausen in the first place - even when he was available later; they simply do not want to cut Russell - yet.

Al Davis invested not only precious capital ($$$$) in Russell, but also his pride - we can all recall where he tried to roast Kiffen, by stating that Russell is a great player and that he should have gotten over the it.  Now, it seems that this same pride has kept the Raiders from seriously addressing their quarterback needs.  Make no mistake, though Campbell definitely seems like an upgrade from Russell, he does not appear to be a long term solution.

Thus it seems that the Raiders are simply more interested in giving Russell another opportunity to prove Davis right than in building toward the future on more solid ground. By not drafting Clausen, but instead trading for Campbell the Raiders are doing two things:
1) Giving Russell strong incentive to restructure his contract, rather than taking the money and walking. 
2) Throwing a bone to Raider fans and the team who desperately want to see some improvement.

To put it plainly, Campbell simply does not represent the same threat Clausen would, which in essence is saying to Russell, your best opportunity to be a starter in this league is still with the Raiders; restructure your contract and you will be given an opportunity to compete with Campbell for the starting position.  In contrast, if Clausen were to be on board it would be unlikely that Russell would even consider restructuring his contract - since Russell (and his agent) would see that the it would be wiser to take the money than compete with a smart, tough, accurate quarterback.

Thus, with Campbell there is more incentive to restructure, but with Clausen there is much less and that is seemingly why the Raiders passed up the great, great opportunity to address a position of serious need.  Essentially, even if Clausen were to have fallen to the seventh round, the Raiders still would not have taken him, not because Clausen has no potential, but rather because Davis' has his pride.  While many would be correct in stating that this draft was a very, very, solid draft only a lemming would not see the folly of putting pride before logic.

All this being stated, Al Davis knows football and I am not about to allow my own pride to blind me to the possibility that maybe Davis sees something in Russell that I have not seen and by challenging Russell in this manner, he hopes to bring out the best in him.  As Raider fans, we can hope that Davis is more motivated by his football knowledge than his pride here, but I honestly find that unlikely.  While lemmings may be ecstatic with Campbell and the draft, wiser fans have to question the motivations of a team that passed up the opportunity to address a position of serious need so many times.

Will JaMarcus restructure or not?  For better or worse, Davis has done just about everything in his power to motivate Russell into restructuring, but now Russell has a decision to make.

Quote from: Maximus on April 25, 2010, 05:50:46 PM

I'm going in a different direction with this one.  I'm thinking that Al is going to show the ruthless Marcus Allen side.  He will make him restructure and will still cut him! If there is one thing that we know about Al Davis, it is this... He does not take fool around when he's pissed off.  If he *****D Marcus Allen over... he will certainly stick it to russell and I don't blame him!!!

Absolutely right,Jadipsh't will be in camp but he wont be allowed to do anything,and after a few days of hit the showers he will quit on his own , call ESPISSN saying Al Davis put a fork in his ass..Breach of contract..Al will then get the whole 9.5 million back.....Very Interesting weekend in Raiderland.