Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but, in this year’s draft there was a long suffering team that selected a player who many expect to be their future franchise quarterback. (bleacherreport) This young man is coming into the league off a promising college campaign to a team that’s been more known for it’s terrible records over the past decade than it’s stellar past achievements. (cbssports) This young man showed a lot of potential in the college ranks, bringing a team that was once seen as a bit of an upstart before fading into obscurity back into the attention of the masses, although that alone wasn’t enough to get him taken early on as he slid further and further down the list as others who were possibly less talented were taken ahead of him. (sbnation) I’m sure there are plenty of people out there thinking that I’m talking about Johnny Manziel, but I assure he’s received enough attention, although Cleveland has been rather abysmal this team may have suffered even more than the lowly Browns. (google) I’m also not talking about that team even further north that wears purple, although a team with the talent they’ve been able to amass not finding a way to at least make a dent in the playoffs is completely baffling, they’re still not as bad off as the dreadful Oakland Raiders. (wikipedia)
There was a point in time when the Oakland Raiders struck fear in the hearts of fans as well as other teams, they were seen as the bad boys of the National Football League, and the men on the roster typically backed up that claim with their actions both on and off the field. (bleacherreport) Unfortunately as they years progressed their owner seemed to lose touch with the game and focused on his old philosophies in regard to which players should be on the roster instead of changing with the times are realizing that the league wasn’t the same as it was when he first brought the Raiders aboard. (nytimes) The Black and Silver facade started to crumble, no longer were players dying to be a Raider because of the cool factor, they were dying to leave the Raiders because they wanted to have a chance to win games, a once proud franchise had fallen. (huffingtonpost) Much like the Miami Hurricanes of the past, the mystique was gone, there was nothing left to fear because the talent continued to dwindle, the difference being Miami lost out due to sanctions from the NCAA and some terrible coaching decisions while Oakland fell off because Al Davis refused to accept that he no longer had what it took to properly run an NFL franchise. (examiner) Once Davis passed away people questioned if the team would finally turn around, one of their first moves was to try finding the quarterback that would be the face of their franchise and they felt they had that between Matt Flynn and Terrelle Pryor, unfortunately things didn’t quite work out as planned. (espn)
With the seemingly round robin tournament going on at quarterback in Oakland last season the hope was that the team would make a move this years that would finally bring an end to their suffering, then the team gave Matt Schaub a guaranteed eight million dollar contract, the same Schaub who was absolutely dreadful in Houston last year. (nfl) This move showed the fans that the franchise had learned virtually nothing from the Flynn debacle from a year ago, paying more for a quarterback than they’re worth and risking falling further off the cliff in their hoped for eventually rise back to the at least the ranks of mediocrity. (cover32) With all of the talent at the quarterback position in this years draft fans were hoping that the Raiders could pick a player who would come to the roster and eventually become the star of their offense, while Schaub has been bad he could have been serviceable enough to help out a young man as he prepares to take the helm of a franchise. (cbssports) One of the more likely scenarios had the Raiders selecting a quarterback a little later on in the draft, as they had some other serious needs, maybe landing a Zach Mettenberger out of LSU, a player with a ton of potential that missed out at the end of his college career due to injuries, allowing him a year to heal on the bench before he took the lead position. (nfl) Luckily for the Raiders a gem fell in their laps when the same Houston Texans that had sent them their new projected starter in Schaub decided to pass on an incredibly gifted quarterback out of Fresno State presumably based on the failings of his brother David ten years earlier. (sportsillustrated)
Derek Carr showed a ton of promise with Fresno State, at points drawing comparisons to his older brother, and at other times being put ahead of his brother in the ranks of quarterbacks to pass through the doors of Fresno State University. (bleacherreport) With the top three quarterbacks projected in this year’s draft having gone in the first round, with Minnesota trading back into the round to land Teddy Bridgewater before Houston could take him with the first pick of round two, and Houston needing a quarterback it seemed as if Carr was the best bet, and best fit, to start off day two of the draft. (usatoday) When Houston passed on Carr the Oakland Raiders took the opportunity to land their star, making the most out of Houston’s mistake and placing the young man on their roster behind Schaub, at least that was the plan, although it seems as though things may be changing much sooner than originally expected. (profootballtalk) With all of the young quarterbacks that could be pressed into a starting role this season Carr seemed to be the least likely with a high paid veteran ahead of him on the roster, but the more work he puts in with the team, the better he seems to be getting, which could spell disaster for Schaub’s hopes of showing last season was a fluke. (sportsglory) If all goes well this could finally be the break Oakland needs and their fans can get back to being the fearsome monsters they once were in decades long forgotten.
