Oakland Raiders: A Tale of Two Quarterback

It's only week two and already the NFL is a buzz with quarterback controversy.  Jimmy Clausen has supplanted Matt Moore in Carolina, Coach Andy Reid is sticking with Kevin Kolb for week three instead of Mike Vick and in Oakland there seems to be a cry for Brad Gradkowski over Jason Campbell.

I'm not a Raiders' fan, I'm a Redskins' fan, but I have no ties to Jason Campbell, I was glad to see Oakland take him off the team's hands.

However, I'd advise Coach Tom Cable against a quick hook for Campbell, even after the comeback win against the St. Louis Rams.

A quick reality check (and I'm ready for the curses and slurs associated with it) the Raiders aren't going anywhere this year.

They may win a few more games than last year but they're not better than the Chargers and right now not nearly as good as the Chiefs.

With that said, the Raiders brought Campbell in to be the starting quarterback of this franchise and immediately signed him to an extension.

With that in mind and the fact that no Oakland you're not going to the play-offs should give Campbell enough time to get acclimated to his new offense.

One and half games isn't enough.  The coaching staff has got to give him 6-8 games to get the offense going.

Of course some will argue that Gradkowski lifted the team to a victory.  Yes he did, but he had two advantages going for him.

No.1 he's been in this system, I'm sure the playbook is a little more open to him and he knows it better than Campbell does.

No.2, the Rams game plan was set for Campbell not Gradkowski.  We saw this in week one where Mike Vick nearly lead a comeback against the Green Bay Packers.  Don't underestimate the art of game planning.  When you're ready for one and another comes at you it can mess up the entire game.

Now I'm not saying the Campbell is necessarily "the guy" in Oakland, it could be Gradkowski, but what I'm saying is that the Raiders brought Campbell in to be the starter and you can't yank that away from him so quickly.

The reality is the Redskins tossed him aside and Raiders picked him up, cleaned him, and bolstered him as the next Jim Plunket (got to love Al Davis's judge on quarterbacks lately) and all of a sudden they're ready to toss him aside.

If they do this and Gradkowski doesn't perform or gets hurt you now have a back-up that has been told by two teams that "you're the guy" and tossed aside.  I'm going to wager his confidence level will be in the tank and you'll get a terrible performance out of him.

Like I said, Campbell may not be "the guy" but the Oakland Raiders need to pick a quarterback and stick with him through good and bad, because this game of musical quarterbacks they seem to have been playing since Rich Gannon left won't work.