Oakland Raiders and the Parallel Universe: Quarterback Options?

Going back a couple of years, I know the Raiders had some options in the draft. As funny as it sounds, we weren't bad enough to take advantage of one option.

The year the Raiders picked Michael Huff in the draft, a number of quarterbacks came around, along with other position players.

My personal choice would have been Vince Young. The only problem there was the Titans had the No. 3 selection, and I doubt we would have had enough trading pieces to move up in the draft.

Another name that was bandied about was Matt Leinart. Leinart wound up dropping to 10th, setting up the Arizona Cardinals with their future QB.

Oakland, in all of this, wound up selecting a safety from Texas.

For general purposes, at that time there existed the belief that we didn't need a QB. We had two that had been in the system for a number of years in Marques Tuiasosopo and Andrew Walter, a veteran in Aaron Brooks, and a new coaching staff led by Art Shell.

We all remember 2006, right?

Many forget that one of the Raiders' wins that season was against a rookie QB who was the new face of the franchise: Leinart.

Advancing to 2008, you can look at three "franchise" QBs. Young, presently languishing on a Titans roster, is locked in place behind one of our former QBs, Kerry Collins. Leinart, meanwhile, is locked in place behind Kurt Warner, who just got done leading his team to the Super Bowl.

Our franchise QB, meanwhile, didn't have a step-up, knowledgeable QB to take over the reins in case JaMarcus Russell wasn't ready for primetime.

The results last year showed. One game, Walter was pressed into service and was ineffective against the Panthers, who ironically played their worst game of the year.

Some have to wonder, if Young didn't have a Collins to take over and was forced to keep playing in light of bad performances, how would his career pan out? Or if Leinart had been the starting QB last year, would the Cardinals have even reached the playoffs?

There is a place for a backup QB to step in, pick up a franchise, and show the youngsters where and how to play. To this degree, I can look at the signing of Jeff Garcia with some optimism. If Russell does turn out to be another Matt Leinart, he'll have a good teacher.

What happens afterwards, once the older QBs retire, is anyone's guess, as Collins and Warner aren't going anywhere right now.