Can Jason Campbell Save The Raiders?

If you ask any Raiders fan about their team’s chances in 2010, they will give you a surprisingly optimistic answer.  The reason for this is the addition of Jason Campbell.

The Raiders essentially gave up nothing to get him from Washington, and he immediately became their starter.

But, Jason Campbell is not regarded as one of the better QB's in the league, so why are they expecting him to take one of the worst teams in the NFL as far as a playoff berth?

The answer is this: he is an immeasurable improvement over one of the worst QB's I have ever seen in JaMarcus Russell.  The Raiders finally have a QB who cares about playing football, watching film, practicing, and improving his team.

Last year the Raiders shuffled draft busts and journeymen, only to discover that none of them were any good.  When they made the move for Campbell it felt to most as if they finally had somewhat of a chance.

Last year Jason Campbell threw for 3,618 yards and 20 TD's.  He did this while also throwing 15 int's and completing 64.5% of his passes, giving him a QB rating of 86.4.

His numbers don't wow any one, but he always has a positive TD/Int ratio and completes over 60% of his passes.

Oakland does have some talent around him to make something happen this year.  With a weak division, with the exception of San Diego, they have a realistic chance this year, as crazy as that sounds.

Can Jason Campbell save Oakland? We will need to wait until September to find out, but based on what the Raiders use to have playing under center the outlook is positive.

We shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves here, but if Jason Campbell can put together a nice season, then it isn't entirely crazy to think that the Raiders could finish near .500 or better.  I wouldn’t bet on it, but remember the Dolphins turnaround a few years ago?

If Campbell doe...

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