Raiders, Bengals Look Foolish

The Raiders (well, Tom Cable, who frightens me) have decided to bench JaMarcus Russell in favor of Bruce Gradkowski the rest of the year.

The knock on Russell is that he has been "inconsistent." His career completion percentage is just 51.7%. They are getting an upgrade in that statistic with Gradkowski, who has thrown in his career for a whopping 53% success rate.

Maybe Gradkowski has been lighting it up in practice. I don't know. But I do know that for every other statistical category, Russell holds a career edge, and his career QB rating is seven points higher than Gradkowski, with a better TD-INT ratio, and a much higher adjusted yards per pass attempt average. Finally, the Raiders have tons more invested in Russell. This move is just Oakland spinning their wheels.

It's amusing, too, to compare Russell's last game, the one that prompted this decision, with Gradkowski's last start, a year ago with the Browns.

Russell: 8-of-23, 64 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions
Gradkowski: 5-of-16, 18 yards,0 touchdowns, 2 interceptions

Quite an upgrade you are making there, Cable. I won't even mention that third-stringer, Charlie Frye, has better career numbers than both of them.

The Raiders aren't alone in making questionable moves this week. The Raiders' opponents on Sunday, the Bengals, picked up Larry Johnson. Sure, it's a great fit in keeping with the Bengals' need to lead the league in arrests, dysfunction, and anger management problems.

But this is a banner year for the Bengals. They're 7-2. They are fresh off a sweep of the mighty Steelers, and one of the reasons for the resurgence is the surprising play of Cedric Benson, who is sixth in the NFL in rushing.

If you analyze the numbers a little more closely, this one at least makes devil's advocate sense. Benson has been too hurt to practice this week and the Bengals have worked him a lot — Benson leads the NFL in carries, and in fact has over 20 carries more than anyone in the league except for Steven Jackson.

So instead of bringing a hothead former starter that could potentially cause a locker room rift and give cause for Benson to grumble (although he has said all the right things so far), why not maintain the team chemistry you have fostered over this successful year and spell Benson as needed with Brian Leonard and Bernard Scott?

Leonard's career stats don't blow anyone away, but he got plenty of work as Steven Jackson's understudy in 2007, including an 100-yard game. Rookie Scott hasn't embarrassed himself, either. But forget them now, with the arrival of Johnson they likely will have less than 10 carries the rest of the way out between them. Johnson, at this point, belongs in the CFL.

So, strangely, this translates to a game this week with interesting sub-plots. My whimsical prediction is that Gradkowski will be terrible, but between Benson being banged up and Johnson not knowing the playbook yet, the Bengals will still be forced to throw, and the Raiders aren't that bad against the pass. Or Benson won't improve enough to play, and Johnson will dominate in his place, causing a huge schism in what should be the Bengals' greatest season since the '80s. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and the Bengals fixed it.