Raiders WILL draft Russell...

[PantherDave]

Well, what the Raiders should do is trade down and get Thomas. The Raiders have a paper mache OL. CJ aint worth a #1 if the QB can't have time to get the ball to be said "super-freak".

[The Vatican Hitsquad]

Well, what the Raiders should do is trade down and get Thomas. The Raiders have a paper mache OL. CJ aint worth a #1 if the QB can't have time to get the ball to be said "super-freak".

 

Great idea, since the last can't miss sure thign instant impact 10 year starter future Hall of Fame Lineman they drafted worked out so well for them.

 

stay at 1, take who you take. period.

[irish]

CJ will be going #1 whether it's to the Raiders or to a team they trade with.

[Swiss Cheezhead]

I also agree with this. Unfortunately, I think John Clayton has gone a little overboard with his recent "Trent Green is the key to the draft" campaign.

 

The Dolphins don't need to trade for Green before the draft -- it won't affect their pursuit of Quinn in the slightest. Also, whether the Dolphins release Culpepper before the draft or afterward, it won't affect Oakland's draft decisions.

 

It's not a matter of "if" the Fins will release C-Pep, but "when." And for those who think it's crazy to think Culpepper will be ready to play this season, I don't think Oakland would be necessarily relying on that. Even if he isn't ready till the beginning of '08, he'll still have three or four good years before he starts declining for good.

 

 

Looks like others have come around to my way of thinking. Here's a better explanation, from PFT, of why Clayton's rant is pretty ludicrous:

 

IS JOHN CLAYTON NUTS?

 

Sorry, John. We know you just got some fancy-shmancy lifetime achievement award from the PFWA, so we probably should play nice.

 

But you also should be glad that the voters cast their ballots before they got an earful of your theory that Trent Green is somehow the key to the 2007 draft.

 

We hadn't heard about this specific thought process until the Poobah's cousin Josh called this morning and said, "Is John Clayton on drugs?"

 

"Not that I know of," was the response. But after Josh explained Clayton's belief that the Raiders will take receiver Calvin Johnson with the No. 1 overall pick if the Chiefs trade Green to the Dolphins, I asked Josh: "Is John Clayton on drugs?"

 

Clayton's hypothesis is that, if the Chiefs trade Green to the Dolphins before the draft, the Dolphins will eventually cut Daunte Culpepper. With Daunte Culpepper likely to be on the market, Raiders owner Al Davis then will decide that he doesn't need to take quarterback JaMarcus Russell with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

 

But even though many in the media are writing off the ability of Davis to make good decisions in light of his age and health, we think that his mind is as sharp as it ever was. Though we believe that the Raiders should take Johnson, the possible ability to sign a potentially washed-up quarterback with limited mobility will be enough to get the Raiders not to take Russell.

 

The biggest flaw in Clayton's argument is that he assumes that if Green isn't traded to the Fins by the end of the week, Culpepper won't be cut by the Dolphins before the start of the season. But there's no way that the Chiefs will keep Green at his $7.2 million salary, and the Fins won't sign Green and keep Culpepper at $5.5 million. So even if the Fins don't get Green by Saturday, it's a safe bet that they eventually will -- and that Culpepper eventually will be available.

 

We also think that Clayton's argument presumes that the Chiefs are too stupid to realize that they should delay the trade of Trent Green until after the Raiders exercise the No. 1 overall pick. With the Dolphins selecting at No. 9 and the Chiefs twiddling their thumbs until No. 23, there will be plenty of time on Saturday afternoon to get the deal done, if the Chiefs hope to keep Davis from concluding that he should take Johnson because he's got a chance to get Culpepper.

 

The bottom line, then, is that the question of whether the Raiders take Johnson over Russell or Russell over Johnson has nothing at all to do with whether Trent Green gets traded to the Dolphins before Saturday at noon.

Edited April 25, 2007 by Swiss Cheezhead