Re-undead Al Davis must be running the Oakland Raiders from beyond the mortal coil. He’s pulling strings from the depths of hell, as the trade for Carson Palmer is right up his alley. Signing Carson Palmer, the big-armed bomb-slinging QB is straight out of the Darryl Lamonica mold. Unfortunately, the Raiders are a running team these days. Behind Darren McFadden, one of the many fast small guys that un-undead Al drafted with regularity, the Raiders are churning up large chucks of yardage on the ground. Campbell certainly wasn’t putting up huge numbers, but he was running the team pretty efficiently.
However, The confluence of Campbell’s injury, Cincinnati’s 4-2 record behind the read-headed step-child Raqggedy Andy Dalton, and the Raiders wanting to get rid of their draft picks for the next 3 years convinced Mike Brown to trade the ‘retired’ Palmer for at least the Raiders 1st round pick in 2012, and possibly (if they make the AFC Championship game) their 2013 1st round pick. It is at worst their 2nd round 2013 pick.
This is quite a price to pay for a guy that has missed camp, and not played a game since the 1st week of 2010. The Raiders are going to start him this weekend vs the 2-3 Chiefs. He is rusty at best. His numbers the past few seasons (19th in QBR last year, 16th the year before, 2008 he was injured, 2007 he was 14th) are pedestrian. And, with the state of that offensive line, he may be under the gun early and often. Too many hits, and he’ll be alongside Campbell on the sidelines. Maybe getting back with Hue Jackson (his QB coach at USC, and WR coach at Cincy) will get him back on beam. If anything, the Palmer trade mercifully gets the Handshake out of the ESPN bullshit news rotation.
And, just in case you are feeling too giddy about the Niners fast start, here’s Ray Ratto’s take on the 49ers:
If I didn’t know better I’d say he’s channeling flying V. What a tool.
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
Whether it’s been injury, his receivers, whatever..Palmer hasn’t been an elite QB for 5 years. It’s certainly a nice deal for the Bengals who are winning with defense while promising rookie Dalton puts up the same numbers they’ve been getting from Palmer the last few years. We’ll see how it works out for the Raiders, certainly he’s better than Boller, but this is an early Christmas present for the Bengals.
As far as Ratso, like many sportswriters and talking heads, when he’s been proven dead wrong, he likes to claim that *everyone* was wrong. He’s the guy who said that anyone who claimed to have seen the Giants’ 2010 postseason success coming, was a liar and should be punched in the throat..Kawakami is trying a similar schtick on Alex Smith- if he might have been wrong, well- so was everyone else. Evidently Tim wants us Smith lovers to stand up and be counted now so we can be ridiculed in Union Sqare if Alex falters…But here’s what he said before the Detroit game:
“If Smith, under Jim Harbaugh, is good enough to pull out the victory in Philly, and then play so efficiently to blow out Tampa Bay, and… THEN beat Detroit, that is a changed QB.Possibly a Pro Bowl QB.And the 49ers would be headed for 10 or 11 wins this season, minimum.”
I say the dude proclaims his Alex love NOW… or be punched in the throat 😉
Exactamente. Get him on record now with his chubby little hand over his heart in Union Square proclaiming his eternal Smith love and none of this rewriting history baloney.
10-11 wins would work for me!
The spirit of crazy Al lives on and on and on. Maybe the Palmer trade will work out for them, dunno. Doubt it. If it does, fine, good for them. But as a former resident of San Diego I won’t be shedding any tears if blows up on them if he goes down.
Yep Chuck that was the article by Ratto that lit my fuse. There’s something in the negative tone that guy has that evokes memories of an evil priest or a sanctimonious headmaster somewhere. What a putz. Well as twinfan says it’s good he sorta sees the light about the 49ers current edition. But to pretend he knew better all along and that one fine day we will all agree with him is nauseating.
Well, Fat Ray’s calling them a flash in the pan that will soon fail. And don’t come crying to him when Smith crashes and burns.
We’ll have our hands full with Del Mar so won’t be time for Ratto…
How did Ratto feel about Walsh? Was he a flash in the pan who would soon fail too? Or was the younger Ratzo more humble, smarter? Me back then I was less humble but compensated for it by being more of a smart-ass. But Ratto? Just curious.
This is what decades of getting sand kicked in his face did to him.
Where is Dennis?
Dunno haven’t seen him around. Probably laying low for the upcoming 10 game stretch, resting up. He’s active on the FF sites always looking to upgrade his roster.
You back East?
Not yet . . .
Taking the red eye tonight.
My weekend pass from my “other home” doesn’t start until Thursday. And that’s only if Nurse Ratched thinks I was a good boy and took all my meds.
Based on your comment on the Flap, you have a med problem, DTD.
Did you guys see the Non Sequitur comic from the other day?
There’s even more of them than I thought…
http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2011/10/18
Mooks? Or cartoons? …or meds?
Well, Dallas draws the winless Rams, but the Rams have the better QB. Bradford just hasn’t had the targets. The Choker should win this but it should be close, simply because, well, it IS the Choker..
If Romo loses to the Rams, I’ll profess my undying love for Alex.
Pucker up, motherfucker . . .
That would be a shocker; two of them in fact!
How come I don’t hear anything about having the 8th rated QB in the league? Maybe because he was ranked third 11 days ago. Well, at least according to your antiquated system that you hold near and dear. Out of their top dozen, Alex is the only QB to avg. < 7 yds/att and < 200 yds/gm. They don't call him Check-down Charlie for nothing.
A little closer look at ESPN's Total QBR will show dear old Alex sitting at 28 with a 38.5 QBR. That's down 12 spots from just the other week. That situates St. Alex behind such luminaries as Painter, Grossman and Tavaris Jackson. Those four quarterbacks scare me more than the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Man, you are plain and simply fucking stupid beyond reason, Dennis. Retarded. A feeb. A wet brain. A mental midget.
If you hate Smith so much, don’t watch the team. Like I’ve asked V so many times, why bother? If you can’t enjoy winning, then go visit the Green Bay blogs. Or beat off to Romo on the Dallas blogs.
One more retarded post, and you’ll get banished with Spit. I’m dead fucking tired of reading your redundant horseshit over and over. Lots of people have had their druthers with Smith. Yes, even this year. You yourself said 2-4 at best. Has Smith played any part in these wins? You think Troy Smiht is a better option? Or Quitter McNabb? Or Kolb? Or any number of the shit-heads you and Spit wanted to bring in?
You have pushed me to the edge of bothering with you, Dennis. I don’t want to ban you, Dennis, but I feel I owe it to you . . .
Ban me? The only reason I’m here is because I’m thinking about buying this dump.
“Bushwood a dump?” Asked Judge Smails.
All I’m trying to do is put things into perspective from a different point of view. You people already have us in the NFC Championship Game playing the pack. You need to relax a bit. How bout a Fresca?
Look, Dennis, the Niners are 5-1, and they are playing good to great football on both sides of the ball. They ARE ranked among the top 4 teams in the league now.
Premature? Maybe, but the wonks that come up with these power rankings and shit like that are unanimous in their prasie of the Niners. Their coaching staff, their defense, and yes, their quarterback.
If they crater, crow away. But most people 6 weeks ago would have gladly accepted a one-and-done playoff scenario. It could still happen. But the team has beaten 2 of last year’s playoff teams (and a 10-6 TB team) plus this year’s unbeaten Detroit team. Shit, Cincy’s 4-2. It’s not like the Niners are beating stiffs. Like you wish you could.
Boo hoo, Dennis. How pissed off are you about our record? Or the fact that the run game is doing well? You think that plays into Smith’s numbers? Or the fact that, with good punt returns and kick returns, the Niners are playing on a shorter field? I guess that doesn’t enter your pea-sized brain.
I suppose you’d rather have Smith throw for 350 and lose. Much like your vaunted lover, Tony Promo does.
I suggest you up your dosage, skippy.
Gee? Maybe my “pea-sized” brain can’t entertain all those other computations. Maybe it’s only good for pulling your lariat when it comes to Alex. Seems like my pea-sized brain works wonders doing that. I hope you’re not this uptight on your flight across the country. Maybe you should start a medication. I have a few I could recommend.
Uptight? I’m thrilled to be missing your turd blossoms this coming weekend.
DTD and his cronies *used* to declare that W/L record was all that mattered, then it was QBR- now that he’s 5-1 with a QBR higher than the Choker, none of that matters- now it’s a stat that’s not recognized even by ESPN as official. Live with it, Death Threat- even his coach doesn’t trust the choker anymore…Alex is the man…
Aaron Rodgers was 26 for 39 against Atlanta for 396 yards and 2 TDs- and won.
Tim Tebow was 4 for 10 for 79 Yds and 1 TD. He also ran 6 times for 38 Yds and 1 TD- and lost.
Of course Rodgers had the much higher Total QBR… well, no. Aaron’s was 82.1. Tebow? 83.2