You heard it here first: JaMarcus Russell will be a bust

What makes a good quarterback? Intangibles. Arm strength. Accuracy. Mechanics. Mobility. And no, “he just wins” is not an acceptable answer.

Maybe everyone knows something I don’t, but I’m still scratching my head over how JaMarcus Russell is rated as a better quarterback prospect than Brady Quinn. Russell was thought of as an average to good prospect, and then, for some reason, one good bowl game against one of the worst defenses in the country made him the favorite to go number one overall. I feel like I’m in a Brady-Manning debate saying this, but JaMarcus Russell did not outplay Brady Quinn. Russell got the early lead and played the whole game against an atrocious defense. Brady Quinn was immediately in a deep hole that forced him to throw the ball more than he might have wanted. Against the LSU defense.

I’m usually wary of people that shoot up draft boards right before the draft, and like Mario Williams among countless others, it doesn’t normally end well.

So go on, drool over his physical abilities and how he can throw the ball seventy nine yards sitting in a lawn chair. It won’t make him a star. I fully expect the Oakland Raiders to draft him, and if they don’t, the Lions will. Whoever ends up with him will be extremely sorry in a few months when they discover that as strong as he is, he really isn’t anything special.

The Combine

It starts today. The men will be separated from the boys. Forty times will be clocked. Body fat will be measured. Bench reps will be counted. Just about every aspect of the players but how good they are at football will be measured. Some will skyrocket up the draft board because they can throw a ball forty yards through the goalposts while on their knees. Others will plummet because despite being an AP All-America four straight years, they can only lift a bar with some weights on it nineteen times.

It’s the NFL Combine. And no, I don’t think much of it.

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Out with the old, in with the…well…old

Everyone knows Mart Schottenheimer was fired in San Diego not so very long ago, and today Jay Glazer at Fox broke the story that the Chargers hired Norv Turner to replace him. I’m not going to dispute the fact that Norv Turner is one of the better offensive minds in football, and he’s helped Alex Smith do a 180 from last season, but let’s not fool ourselves: he’s not head coach material. He bombed in Oakland. He bombed in Washington. Norval Turner simply isn’t a good head coach in the National Football League, and with the array of options the Chargers had available to them, it’s beyond me why they would set themselves three years back with a hire like this. Fans of the other three AFC West teams should be very, very happy.