Oakland Paper: “If only we’d drafted Cutler”

In a big game of “What If?” – Oakland Raiders beat writer Steve Corkran wonders aloud how different the Raiders would be if they had selected Jay Cutler with the 7th overall pick last year. Instead, the team picked safety Michael Huff, who has a lot of upside but hasn’t lived up to his potential yet.

Corkran conveys his idea that the team would be further along if they had selected Cutler last season and wide receiver Calvin Johnson in this year’s draft. It’s hard to argue with his reasoning (although it’s convenient to think drafting Cutler would still guarantee a #1 overall pick this past year).

For one thing, it would have prevented the Broncos from picking up Cutler, delaying the possibility of drafting a franchise quarterback for (probably) several years.

An excerpt from his article:

Patience is not one of Oakland managing general partner Al Davis’ virtues. He has said time and again that the Raiders don’t rebuild, they reload.

Part of their reloading the past two years involved selecting strong safety Michael Huff and quarterback JaMarcus Russell with Oakland’s top picks in the 2006 and’07 NFL drafts, respectively.

Huff has yet to make much of an impact, and Russell didn’t start practicing with his new team until Wednesday. So, it’s way too early to pass judgment on two of Davis’ most important decisions the past 18 months.

One thing is certain. Davis’ reloading process would have been much farther along had he selected quarterback Jay Cutler instead of Huff last year and, in turn, wide receiver Calvin Johnson instead of Russell this past April.

It’s hard to imagine Cutler in silver and black… and hell, it’s a scary image when you try. But this is the kind of article that just confirms what Broncos fans already know – this kid Cutler is special, and will lead us to glory again.