Can Jason Campbell save his career in Oakland?
Of course, he needs to save the Raiders first.
It took two preseason games for Jason Campbell to stop feeling like the deposed quarterback of the Washington Redskins and to begin feeling like the rightful quarterback of the Oakland Raiders for the 2010 NFL football season.
The Oakland Raiders acquired quarterback Jason Campbell from the Washington Redskins for a 4th round draft pick in 2012. An while Campbell may be an upgrade for the struggling Raiders franchise, the expectations and hopes should be kept under control in Oakland because Jason Campbell is far from the savior that will save the bay area franchise.
“It was weird when I first got here,” Jason Campbell said late Saturday night, standing in a rapidly emptying visitor’s locker room at Soldier Field after he made his second preseason start for the Raiders. “But as months have gone by, it’s kind of like getting farther away now. Last week, the first time being in a different uniform playing a game just felt different. But this week, it was like, ‘Okay, you got that first game out of the way. Now let’s turn to the second game”.
Campbell’s five-year tenure with the Redskins was all about change. He endured new head coaches, offensive coordinators and offensive systems. When the Redskins – under another new coach, Mike Shanahan, and a new general manager, Bruce Allen – stopped believing that the former first-round draft choice was the answer for them at quarterback, the biggest change of all came when Campbell was traded to the Raiders in April.
The Redskins’ new regime had traded for Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, making Campbell’s departure inevitable.
“I look back on it just saying it prepared me for this part of my career,” Campbell said Saturday of his Redskins tenure. “I went through a lot of things there, a lot of changes. . .Playing the quarterback position, you get blamed for a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff was just way too much, though.”
Former Redskins coach Jim Zorn said fans and others may have assigned Campbell more blame than he deserved. Zorn, who had a record of 12-20 in two seasons as the team’s head coach, said the Redskins could have won with Campbell at quarterback if the rest of the club had been functioning smoothly.
“He was progressing as well,” Zorn said. “Think about the pressure that he was under with all the criticism. He had been there longer than I was. And that was part of the issue. People were tired of seeing him, right? But we could have pushed through with him. We couldn’t push through with some of the injuries we had.”
Zorn, now the quarterbacks coach of the Baltimore Ravens, said he expects Campbell to succeed in Oakland if the Raiders’ offensive line performs well.
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New Orleans Saints +900
Indianapolis Colts +800
New England Patriots +1000
Dallas Cowboys +1000
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