Daunte Daunte Daunte!!!

[.:DaYg0sTyLz:.]

Looks like we might get our wish Raider fans.



With McCown nicked up, Culpepper could get start for Raiders
   By Adam Schefter  |  NFL Network

 

Last week Oakland opted to go with quarterback Josh McCown over Daunte Culpepper.

This week, the Raiders might not have any choice but to go with Culpepper over McCown.

It’s not performance-based; it is injury-based.

On the final play of Sunday’s 36-21 loss to Detroit, while getting pressure from Lions defensive end Kalimba Edwards, McCown accidentally smashed his index finger into the helmet of Oakland offensive tackle Cornell Green, slightly cracking it.

McCown could not grip a football Monday. The Raiders are uncertain whether McCown will be able to play Sunday against the Denver Broncos, yet others around the league are skeptical.

Quarterbacks with similar injuries have, in the past, been sidelined three to four weeks. It has been speculated within the Raiders organization that McCown could miss the same amount of time.

It’s also possible that, when McCown shows up for work Wednesday, he can grip a football and play on Sunday. Yet slightly cracked bones are not easy injuries for quarterbacks to overcome.

And McCown’s finger is not the only wound he is nursing. McCown also suffered a sprain foot that was swollen enough Monday to require X-rays. The X-rays were negative, but McCown is physically beaten up, perhaps leaving the Raiders no choice but to turn to Culpepper, who had a highly impressive preseason.

This is only one quarterback issue the Raiders must now deal with. There are plenty of others. Once JaMarcus Russell signs his six-year contract –- and it could happen as early as Tuesday –- Oakland will ask for and receive a two-week roster exemption on him.

The Raiders figured to make this a redshirt season for Russell anyway, and with him engaging in the lengthy holdout he did, the chances of that happening have only increased.

There’s now a chance that Russell will join Carson Palmer and Jason Campbell as the only two quarterbacks drafted in the first round in almost the past two decades not to play a single down in a season.

Also, with Russell signing so late, it might make sense for the Raiders to place Russell on the Physically Unable to Perform List, meaning Russell could not be activated until the seventh week of the season. These are the decisions the Raiders must deal with starting Wednesday, when players report back to work for practice.

When Russell signs, it will be a six-year deal with a base value of $61 million, including $29 million in guaranteed money and another $3 million in guarantees that would be triggered with a minimum amount of playing time that would be paid out in 2010. The deal's value could be worth as much as $68 million, with $32 million in guaranteed money, the richest contract an NFL rookie ever has signed.


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