Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis seems to make nothing but bone-headed moves, this time he signed kicker Sebastian Janikowski to a four-year $16 million contract with $9 million guaranteed, the largest contract for a kicker in the NFL.
Yes, Janikowski is the all-time leading scorer in Raiders history. That said, every year a former Pro Bowl kicker falls off the face of the earth and is never heard of again. Kickers are so unpredictable that investing so much money into them is too high of a risk to take.
This is in line with other moves by Davis in recent years. To start, the Raiders selected Janikowski in the first round of the 2000 draft, making him the first kicker ever taken in the first round. The move shocked everyone not named Al Davis.
In 2007, the Raiders selected JaMarcus Russell, a quarterback from LSU with the first overall pick in the draft. Selecting him was not the poor decision, as he was the best quarterback on the board. The bad decision is continuing to play Russell even though it is clear that he is a first round bust. Yes, Russell was benched in 2009, but ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports the Raiders are planning on having Russell as their starting QB next season. Davis is choosing money over winning. Davis will make sure he plays because he is paying Russell $61 million. Even if Russell is the worst quarterback on the team, Davis has shown that he will play him.
In last year’s draft, the Raiders took wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey from the University of Maryland with the seventh overall pick in the draft. The team skipped over Michael Crabtree, who many believed was the most talented wide receiver in the 2009 draft class. So why select Heyward-Bey? Well, if you have paid attention to Davis, you know he loves quarterbacks who can throw down the field and wide receivers who can beat cornerbacks. If you can run a 4.3 40-yard dash, you are Davis’ man, because in his world you can’t teach speed.
Davis’ obsession with speedy receivers hurt the team this past season. In 11 games, Heyward-Bey caught nine passes for 124 yards and one touchdown. In San Francisco, Crabtree caught 48 passes for 625 yards and two touchdowns for the 49ers. Those numbers are after he missed all of training camp and the first four weeks of the regular season. Needless to say, Crabtree was not in football shape. He was not looking like Charles Barkley, but he was not ready to play football. Still, in just as many games as Heyward-Bey, Crabtree had a much better season.
Obviously Heyward-Bey has time to prove he was worth the seventh overall pick, but right now it looks like another Raiders screw up.
The worst part about the organization is that Davis used to be one of the best owners in sports. Since he took over the team in 1972, the Raiders have won three Super Bowls and five AFC Championships. That said, the team has certainly had its share of ups and downs.
Davis attempted to restore the glory of past decades when he hired Art Shell in 1990. Shell was named the Coach of the Year in 1990 when he led the Raiders to a 12-4 record and an AFC West division title. He was promptly fired in 1994 after the team finished with a 9-7 record.
It did not take long for Davis to regret his decision to fire Shell. He lured the coach back to the team in 2006. In his first year, Shell led the team to a 2-14 record. It was the worst record in team history and he was fired after the season.
Much like the Washington Redskins tried to do with the rehiring of former coach Joe Gibbs in 2004, the Raiders thought the Shell hiring would turn the team around. It, in fact, did not.
To watch one of the most storied NFL franchises and its long time owner become one of the laughing stocks of the league is sad. Al Davis has always been willing to spend money in order for his team to win, but so has Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins and they haven’t been much better.
One of the many points that Michael M. Lewis made in his book “Moneyball,” about Oakland Athletics’ general manager and minority owner Billy Beane, is that it is not about how much money a team spends, but how the team spends that money. While Lewis’ book is about baseball, the same concept holds true in the NFL.
In the Raiders case, spending $16 million on a kicker is not a good way to start on the path to winning.
You can reach this columnist at sports@theeagleonline.com.
