FanHouse AlDavis

Al Davis has gotten a pretty bad rap when it comes to personnel acumen over the last few years thanks to ill-advised trades and free agent signings. The video below may change your mind about the Raiders owner, however.

Many players have been described as being so fast that they fly downfield, none of them have literally done it. Until now, that is.

What follows is a fabricated* letter from JaMarcus Russell to Al Davis. Clay Travis, armed with a hacksaw and a flip cam, altered a peephole to obtain its contents.

Dear Al,

You told me to call you Al when you drafted me back in 2007. You said I could call you Al because you used to be a black panther. I think you said, "I feel you, baby." Then you felt my shoulder. Now I'm offering you a shoulder to lean your head on. I want you to sleep well at night, Al. I want you to do away with all your worries and climb aboard a train to Super Bowl Village. I want you to name me head coach of the Oakland Raiders. I'm ready, I'm prepared. I'm agog at the potential of the Oakland Raiders.

I can be your Pete Rose. Only without the gambling or the baseballs or the baseball bats. Really though, baseballs are just like footballs, only smaller and whiter. Also, not ovals. I'm a lot like Pete Rose too, only fatter, blacker and not prone to hustle. To be honest, I don't even like to run at all. I prefer to stand still and watch men break on me. I'm like Hemingway's Frederic Henry if Hemingway was not capable of subject-verb agreement. Quarterback-coach, it has a nice ring to it, right?

I've decided to itemize the reasons I should be coach. By the end of this letter you'll see that our philosophies, our offensive goals, my proven track record of success, the fact that you are already paying me a lot of money, myriads of reasons militate my hire.

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For the Oakland Raiders, "Commitment to Excellence" has taken on a whole new meaning in recent years. The organization has won 24 times in six seasons, and owner Al Davis is solely responsible for the current predicament.

The latest move -- sending the Patriots a 2011 first-round pick for Richard Seymour -- virtually guarantees that the ineptitude will continue. And if you're wondering how Davis, who shipped Randy Moss to New England for a fourth-rounder in 2007, manages to sustain the haplessness, the Raiders trade chart cheat sheet might hold some clues.

A glimpse into the madness after the jump.

Al Davis loves speedy wide receivers and strong-armed quarterbacks. These are well-known facts that explain -- though don't justify -- many of the Raiders' draft-day decisions.

There was a time, 25 to 30 years ago, when Oakland's reliance on the deep pass was integral to its success. But defenses evolve to combat offensive advancements and what was in vogue a few seasons back will almost certainly be obsolete today.

It's an arms race. Unless you're Davis, who still has visions of Kenny Stabler or Jim Plunkett regularly connecting with Cliff Branch. Meanwhile, the reality is that the Raiders are one of the worst organizations in the league, and there's no reason to think that will change anytime soon.

It would have been nice if, after the Raiders selected wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey with the seventh-overall pick in April's draft, the talented but raw Maryland product quietly went about proving his critics wrong.

Instead, he suffered a hamstring injury two weeks after the draft (speed kills, apparently), which made it easy for detractors to point out that Michael Crabtree or Jeremy Maclin -- two receivers everybody but Al Davis had rated higher than Heyward-Bey -- might have been better choices.

Then again, Davis loves the vertical passing game, and to pull it off you need a strong-armed quarterback and a receiver who can blow past defenders. JaMarcus Russell was an obvious choice for the former, and of all the available pass catchers in the 2009 draft, Heyward-Bey made too much sense (at least from Al's perspective) for the latter.

Free agent linebacker Greg Ellis will sign a three-year contract today with the Raiders, according to a source. Ellis visited the Raiders on Friday and agreed to the deal Sunday night.

Randy Moss is the best wide receiver in the NFL. For different reasons, Al Davis, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady have a lot to do with that. But before his professional football career, Moss was a legit basketball player, too.

He was twice named Mr. Basketball in West Virginia, and even contemplated the two-sport route at one point. So when he says LeBron James could play in the NFL, I believe him. And not just suit up George Plimpton style, either. Moss thinks LeBron, an All-Ohio wideout in high school, would dominate.

It's May, NFL practices are voluntary, and they mainly consist of 80 or so players running around in shorts and t-shirts trying not to get hurt. Despite barely resembling football, organized team activities (OTAs) are an opportunity for coaches to install new schemes, and new faces to get acclimated to their surroundings.

It's also a chance for veterans to become more comfortable. This assumes the scheme doesn't change every offseason. Which brings us to JaMarcus Russell, the first overall pick in 2007, and currently penciled in as the Raiders starting quarterback.

Last season, the Raiders paid DeAngleo Hall $8 million for eight weeks of service before cutting bait. Not the best use of the salary cap, but it makes sense when put in perspective: Oakland has had four coaches, four quarterbacks and 16 wins in four years. Blowing $8 million on Hall is nothing.

Hall wasn't out of work long; he signed with the Redskins and played well enough to get a long-term deal (apparently, leaving Oakland is good for your career).

After an injury-filled, $8 million season in Washington, Jason Taylor was back on the free-agent market this spring. Several teams needing a pass rusher showed interest, including the Patriots, who had previously traded veteran linebacker Mike Vrabel to the Chiefs.

Taylor ended up in Miami, where he started his career and played for 10 seasons. It was one of the few examples of a player turning down a chance to join the Pats; head coach and evil genius Bill Belichick has an incredible knack for convincing free agents -- through Charles Manson-styled brainwashing, no doubt -- to come to Foxboro. Not this time.