It's just too dang easy! It really is. Instead of watching the game, or in some cases re-watching the game, you can easily rely on a SportsCenter highlight to determine your viewpoint about a team, game, play, or player.
In some cases, such as former Raider Tyler Brayton getting caught kneeing punk Jeremy Stevens in the family jewels on prime time, these mini-clips can make a player look completely different than what they truly are. In Brayton's case, the mild mannered, hard-working defensive end that rarely made highlight-reel plays was determined to be the prototypical Raider hoodlum, which couldn't be further from the truth.
In the case of Stuart Schweigert, these mini-clips can make you look like an awfully bad football player. Whether it was a Ladanian Tomlinson touchdown run, a Tony Gonzalez touchdown catch, or any of Denver's running backs dragging him for ten more yards, Raider Nation and the haters both looked at him as the culprit for the big momentum shift.
I'm not blind. If you are looking for a hard hitting, snot jarring, play-making safety, Schweigert is not going to be your first choice. While I think he could be a playmaker in the right defense, thanks to his speed and soft hands, he was never to be confused with George Atkinson or Jack Tatum. He just never has had the killer instinct to be that enforcer in the secondary, which the Raiders have so desperately needed over the past few years...Ok, the past decade...alright, since Ronnie Lott donned the Silver and Black.
So, with Raider Nation expecting a Lott, Schweigert was doomed to disappoint. But think of all the safeties before him? Besides Rod Woodson and Eric Turner, name a safety over the past 15 years to wear the patched-eyed bandit on his helmet that didn't disappoint.
Can anyone say that Schweigert was worse than Anthony Dorsett? How about Derrick Gibson? Sure, he was no Vann McElroy, but he wasn't one of those first guys either. Does anyone reading this think Calvin Branch was better? Ok, I'll give you Eddie Anderson, but that's a close call.
Would you like to see the rest of the list? Patrick Bates, Chris Carr, Perry Carter, Rickie Dixon, Torin Dorn, Hiram Eugene, Johnie Harris, James Hasty, Derrick Hoskins, Carl Kidd, Dan Land, Albert Lewis, Lorenzo Lynch, Keyon Nash, Elvis Patterson, Reggie Tongue, James Trapp, Denard Walker, Lionel Washington, and Brock Williams, are the players listed as DB's who were notable or played for more than one season in the Raiders' secondary since Lott moved on to the Jets.
Out of that bunch, I'd be willing to give you Dan Land and Albert Lewis as guys who were as good or better than Schweigert as a Raider. So, in 16 years, the Raiders have had four or five guys who were as good or better than Schweigert play safety. Better yet, none of those guys were even in the league over the past five years.
The biggest complaint that I read and hear is that Schweigart couldn't tackle, yet in the only year that he's started all 16 games, he had 107 tackles. That's a linebacker number! I also hear that he didn't take good angles to the tackle. Hmm, normally when you saw Schweigert looking out of position, it's because he was out of position for a strong safety or linebacker.
People forget, or don't know, that with his speed, Schweigert covered a lot of ground, and that was his downfall with the Raiders. Many of the out of position tackles he was making were cover-ups for strong safeties like Derrick Gibson or linebackers like Sam Williams.
The fact that his number was called so often should've been a sign to Raider Nation that this guy wasn't the problem. Instead, he's been booed and vilified on message boards as 'terrible.' If you must blame anyone for the lack of an enforcer in the secondary, blame the person who picked Michael Huff to be a strong safety.
Yeah, I'm a Raiders fan that thinks highly of Stuart Schweigert, so? I'm not even going to remind everyone that he was the type of professional athlete that a fan could be proud of, with his community service, team first attitude, and willingness to meet with fans. So yeah, I'm a fan of his too.
So long Stu, I hope that your career winds up being long, and that you don't come back to haunt the Raiders when it counts. I'll still root for you, other than games that the Raiders face you. Whatever you do, don't even think about running your mouth like Chris Carr or Jerry Porter, because then it won't matter what I think of you now. If that happens, then I'll know that all of my good feelings about you will have been for nothing.
Rob Calonge writes for Thoughts from the Darkside on MVN.com. More Raiders stories and articles by Rob can be found at http://mvn.com/nfl-raiders
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4 months ago
I went to every game the past 2 years and that sack of shit cant tackle a fly!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4 months ago
Good Article, Rob. I agree with your takes and man you took me back with the list of former safeties. I did start to get a bit of a headache thinking of some. I recall being at the stadium in 2000 watching the playoff game against the Ravens and two things having me highly upset. 1) Anthony Dorsett 2) Tony Sarigusa dropping his 375 lbs. on Rich Gannon. Excellent read, you're right Stuart would cover a lot of ground and was trying to cover up for others. He was a good guy who had no problem talking to fans and he was a professional when it came to community service. I wish him well and he better not pop off with a verbal tirade like Jerry Porter and Chris Carr. Two very ungrateful guys.
from 4 months ago
Hey Jeff, thanks for the compliment.
I was at that game too, and it has to rank right up there as one of the most disappointing losses in Raiders history. What made it worse was how well the Ravens manhandled the Giants in the Super Bowl.
4 months ago
Most of the Safeties you listed didn't get close to the amount of playing time Stu did...He had 37 games to prove himself and couldn't seize the opportunity.
from 4 months ago
Isaiah - You're right, but they are ALL of the safeties that have played for the Raiders since 1992, besides guys that were only on the team for one year.
4 months ago
107 tackles. How many were solo? Stu was notorious for falling into a pile late to get that 0.5 tackle. The man was a terrible football player and we are a much better team without him.
FYI- Anthony Dorsett and Marques Anderson were twice the player that Stu ever was.
from 4 months ago
Chris - 86 of those were solo. I can't disagree more with you about your assessment of Dorsett and Anderson.
Thanks for taking the time to read my article.
4 months ago
Coming from outside Raider nation, I always thought that Schweigart was a good player. I'd love to see Indy pick him up as their third safety, but he'll probably get a starting job somewhere like Carolina.
4 months ago
Stuarts a good guy but not a very good football player. At best, he's a third stringer.
4 months ago
All he did was run along side people and push them out of bounds. Oh yeah and after he got torched he would slap the guy on the helmet and tell him good play. so long stu u should have be gone a year ago.
4 months ago
107 tackles for a safety is not necessarily a good thing. No slight against Stu, who took a lot of heat for not making a lot of open field tackles, but a safety posting LB tackle numbers is generally a function of weak run blocking.
Stu was no hall of famer, but very few players are going to consistently make the tackle against a good rb / wr in the open field. In general, 1 on 1 matchups in the open field favors the runner.
4 months ago
Hey Raider Nation, I just read that the Raiders just signed Tui as a backup QB. I think he is a great fit in the WC system we are now using. Things would have been different for him if Gruden would have stayed in Oaktown. He is still young, tough and very mobile. If JR goes down he could fill in well for the Nation.
4 months ago
Good heart too light too slow too many bad angles too many excuses we've run a cover 0 in years past and many played it much better then stu .
Wish you well hope you get to the right oppertunity in the nfcvikings lions might be better?
4 months ago
Finally an article about Schweigert from someone who watched more than the SportsCenter top ten. My family's had season tickets in the Black Hole since the Raiders came back to Oakland so I've seen this guy play a game or two. Schweigert's no pro-bowler, but when you can't stop the run, you don't scape-goat your safety.
And if you want to point a finger to the secondary, I'd like to see Huff play like a No.7 overall pick. Namdi turned into a beast in his third year. I'm hoping Huff will do the same.
4 months ago
Great Article!! It's nice to read an article from someone who actually watched all of the games and not just the highlights. I've always been a fan of Stu and even almost bought his jersey (mistake). And as far as the blown tackles, if you give RB's like LT and LJ a 10 yard head start, 90% of the safeties in the league will miss that tackle. Our Free Safety is supposed to be the last line of defense, not the first guy to lay a hand on a RB. How many bad angles were taken by the other 8 guys that allowed the RB to get to the secondary. Stu had a rough rookie year but was a solid tackler after that. Maybe it's just hard to shake off that first impression.
For all the Schweigert haters...watch a Raider game and see how bad our DL plays against the run. There's the real problem with our rush D not the safeties. If you don't agree, then you might as well name Huff the scapegoat for '08.
4 months ago
Good article. But what a player does off the field doesn't concern me as much as what he does 'on' the field....or in this case 'lack of' doing on the feild. Stu is a good man...Okay...I'll give you that...but hes a bad tackler. I dont care how bad a DL did against the Run, everybody is held accountable for their own actions. In as for his Safety position, he failed. So now we watch Wilson step up to the plate
4 months ago
No kidding our Defense sucks. We haven't had decent coaching since Chuckie left town. I like Kiffin but until he gets results like Chuckie, he's the same as Turner and Shell. Our DL and Safeties need very much improvement. The LB's and CB's were not terrible like the DL and Safeties.
Stu is not the scape goat, for a Safety, he just wasn't physical enough in my humble opinion. He played Safety like a QB would I think. Very fragile and hesitant.
Walter is a good QB and he ought to be out #2. Any QB with the coaching staff with the bed and breakfast fruity tootie and the OL of five sissies would have had similar results as Walter in 06. I think Walter is good enough to start. Tui is a spaz monster, not the answer. He sees folks coming at him and he freaks.
We need to get rid of Jordan, he runs like he's got a load in his pants. I'd try to trade him though and rip off another team of some decent players if possible if we could find a team dumb enough to trade for him. Hell, give them Gallery too as he is not the Lyle Alzado type I thought he might turn into. Gallery's turned more into the Shirley Temple type I hoped he would not be.
4 months ago
well reguardless if people hate him, i would add him for depth. As for Raiders and Schweigert, they parted ways. He will find a new home.
4 months ago
I'm with people on the fact that Stu was a good person, and had some heart. But this is a business after all and he was getting millions of dollars to do a job. Regardless of how much he was making vs other better playing safties making less. He wasn't getting his job done.
Stu got out of position way to often, couldn't locate the ball or even the defender well for that occasion. His tackle total looks impressive. That is until game tape is broken down. He would make the tackle way down field from the spot he should have made it at. If he made the tackle at all, I wish could count how many tackles he missed and plays he didn't make. That would more than offset the mis-leading tackle total.
The knock on Huff is not accurate. I believe he will fullfill his #7 draft status in the next couple of years with multi pro bowls with the Raiders. I never once believed Huff would be a hard hitting SS as advertised. But what was he supposed to say "oh, i'm not that great of a SS before draft day"? The so called experts billed him as that, but if you watched Texas games or even the game against USC in the Rose Bowl, you would quickly reallize that this guy is a ball hawking, free roving play maker (the pick in the zone to turn the game around from being an early blowout). He has been asked to cover the best TE's in the game, Gates twice a year and top notch TE Gonzales twice a year. Covering TE's (great ones at that) does not let him survey the field and make plays, best utilizing his abilities.
Huff will come up big this year, and Stu being gone will be a main part of his success...
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