The Examined Life

As a man moves into his 30's, he starts to reflect on aging and what it means. I'm no different and as I did some deep reflecting on my life and myself as a person, I came to the realization that the Raiders haven't had a franchise quarterback since I was born.

Surely this had to be a mistake, I said to myself, so I looked it up.

1980 - Jim Plunkett
1981 - Marc Wilson
1982 - Jim Plunkett
1983 - Jim Plunkett
1984 - Marc Wilson
1985 - Marc Wilson
1986 - Jim Plunkett
1987 - Marc Wilson
1988 - Jay Schroeder
1989 - Vince Evans, Steve Beuerlein, Jay Schroeder (none played enough to qualify for the passing title)
1990-1992 - Jay Schroeder
1993-1996 - Jeff Hostetler
1997 - Jeff George
1998 - Donald Hollas
1999-2003 - Rich Gannon
2004-2005 - Kerry Collins
2006 - Andrew Walter
2007 - Daunte Culpepper
2008 - JaMarcus Russell
2009 - JaMarcus Russell
2010 - Jason Campbell

Dear god that is awful. How on earth did they get to the AFC title game in 1991 riding the cannon of Jay Schroeder and the mind of Art Shell? Inconceivable. I would argue that there isn't one franchise guy on the list. Plunkett is good but there's a reason he was dumped by the Pats. If those Raider teams weren't loaded, he would've been terrible there too.

The Rich Gannon era is the only possible time the Raiders might have had a franchise QB. The stats back it up and the went to the Super Bowl once. But really, if a guy doesn't play until he's 36 and is successful mostly because Jon Gruden was a genius, can you really call him a franchise QB? I think as good as Gannon was, that was because we had a franchise coach, not a stud QB.

As sad as this list is, knowing that you can't win in the NFL without a QB, I choose to look at the Silver lining. No longer will I ask myself why we've sucked for the better part of two decades, I'll just look at this list and marvel that we even managed to win 4 games a year. With this level of ineptitude at the most important position, the team should have been disbanded or moved to Cleveland long ago. Seriously, Don Hollas? Jeff George? I didn't even have the heart to put in Todd Marinovich. Even the putrid Bengals got Boomer Esiason and Carson Palmer pre-knee explosion. As legendary a list of grade A suck this list is, the fact that they managed a few playoff appearances and a title game seems like an undeserved bounty.

Assuming there's football this year, it'll be refreshing to watch Jason Campbell take the field to hold the ball to long and know that this performance is historically near the top of the barrel. That and a 12 pack should take the edge right off.