Even More News of the Weird
In even more News of the Weird in the world of QBs, Kerry F. Collins signed with the Flaming Thumbtacks.It's official.
The good news is KFC is now unavailable to make a Night of the Living Dead return to Oakland. The bad news is Tennessee is not on the Raiders' schedule this season to beat up on 'em.
What are the chances KFC will still be around next season for the Raiders to channel the spirits of Bill Romanowski and Ike Lassiter to bust KFC's slack jaw with a well-placed forearm shiver?
When we reflect on the folly of the Thumbtacks, suddenly signing Jeff George seems, well, "Brilliant!" by comparison. While to say Randy Moss and KFC had all the good chemistry going of a crystal meth lab explosion in the basement of your average hillbilly is an understatement, it is worth noting George and Moss spent some time together as Vikings ('99).
Moss went to the Pro Bowl as the Vikings went 10-6 that season, immediately following George's departure from the Raiders to Minnesota.
We all have seen Moss' frustration on the sidelines last year and in this preseason as he has consistently been underutilized. The combination of last season's KFC fiasco and injuries from his Discharger mugging lead to Moss' worst full season to date.
Just as Art Shell introduced Joey Porter to pinetime as the result of his antics, perhaps Shell is rewarding Moss by bringing in George. After all, Coach Shell has praised Moss' leadership in the locker room. Moss' forte is the vertical game and George throws a bomb as well as the original Raider QB prototype, Daryle Lamonica.
Is bringing in Moss' QB is a resounding vote of confidence for Moss on Art's part more so than the "desperation move" spin many of the mediots put on the George signing? As long as Shell doesn't adopt "Meathead" Mike Tice's "Randy Ratio" nonsensical offense, I'm OK with it.
It's a shame the Raider practices are closed to visitors, as George does his best work in practice. Once he takes the field on game day, George's ego causes him to call his own plays at times and defy his coaching staff with the Mad Bomber act.
Yet Walsh and Shell are on record as stating their "Al Davis" offense will allow more QB improvisation than the previous systems, and we all know Moss certainly excels at improvising routes.
George's other main flaw I remember is he tends to curl up in the fetal position and play dead whenever he hears a pass rush coming. With the Raider O-line not exactly giving KFC the best protection last season, George's "stop, drop, and roll" tendency becomes more important.
Perhaps George will just be around till the final cuts and be an emergency QB on speed dial should Brooks, Walter, or Tui go down for the season, but in the words of Alice, "Curiouser and curiouser..."
posted by Stick'em at 2:28 PM
5 Comments:
If the Raiders are in a position where they have to resort to the #3 QB, who would you rather have pulling the string, Curious George or Tui?
To me it is a no-brainer proposition. I would rather have Curious George slinging the ball 60 yards down the field to #18.
Curious George is a better fit for the Raiders vertical offense in both practices and games.
Curious George would be a hell of a lot more interesting to watch from a fan's perspective than seeing Tui dink and dunk his way to a bunch of 3 and outs.
Any NFL team that has the misfortune of putting their #3 QB in for an actual game is going nowhere fast.
CJ: Well, Rick Mirer didn't exactly set the world aflame as the #3 once Gannon and Tui went down...
An experienced #3 who can teach the younger QBs in front of him would be ideal. Can George be a teacher? Can George help 'em learn the way to break down game film and hone their throwing technique?
Dunno. But I agree with you. George is more interesting a backup than Tui.
We do know neither one will be here next season, so the question is which can contribute more this season?
I'd go with George, though Brooks and Walter would have to be on IR before Jeff should see the field. Tui hasn't shown anything. George has shown he can have flashes of brilliance in the right system - a modified Sid Gillman offense qualifies.
As a dedicated Raiders fan for life, I sympathize with Raiders fans who feel they need to place all of the blame for last year's embarassment of a season on Collins. But now he's gone, we've moved on, he's moved on. There's no need to continuously attack the guy. Lets just focus on our current players and look forward to some dominant play this season.
Nice article overall: one suggestion. Unless Shell is more powerful than imagined and can bench other teams' players, you might want the text to read Jerry Porter instead of Joey Porter. Good work, though, I enjoyed it.
Anon 6:26 ~
Rehashing KFC is indeed like beating a mule who very long ago plowed his last 40 acres and is currently in line to be Elmer's. You are definitely granted a cease fire on this count.
The only reason the KFC signing is mentioned is to be juxtaposed along side the Jeff George signing, which occurred the same day.
The question, "Which of the two vet QBs would YOU rather have as a Raider?" answers itself. No?
Anon 9:52 ~
For years TV play-by-play announcers and newspaper writers have mistakenly referred to the Raiders Jerry Porter as "Joey Porter".
To this day they often confuse him with the Squeelers' LBer of that name.
I call'em "Joey" on purpose to remind Porter (the WR) that no matter how much he thinks of himself, there are still a lot of people in the business who don't even know his name.
It's not a typo on my part, just busting his b@lls a bit- LOL!
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