Kyle Boller--A Back-up's Back-up

After breaking his collarbone in Sunday's win over the Browns, it was announced that Oakland Raider's QB Jason Campbell might need season-ending surgery to repair his broken collarbone. Campbell's injury should significantly hamper the Raider's opportunity to win the AFC West. (The Raider's are 4-2 after 6 games; usually after 6 games they're 0-6 and should be 0-7 but the NFL has a rule prohibiting multiple losses assigned to a team for one game regardless of the degree of spectacular futility achieved.)

The injury is tough for Campbell who suffered through years of turmoil with the Redskins only to have recently found stability with the Raiders. But, it's Raider's coach Hue Jackson's comments that piqued DBSF's interests. In response to handing the reigns over to Kyle Boller, Jackson sounds less than enthused. Consider these comments:

“I feel good about Kyle, that’s why he’s here. I know Kyle, I know what Kyle is and what he’s capable of doing. But we’re chasing a championship here. That’s the commitment I’ve made to the organization then I got to make sure that we’re putting championship players out there. Not to say that Kyle’s not. I got to make sure that there’s not somebody out there who can come best fit us that may give us an opportunity.” (First sentence is standard 'small p' political support for the back-up. Theeeennnnnn, he's explicit in his view on Boller's ability to be a Superbowl-caliber QB. Nothing wrong with honesty--Rex Ryan has made such transparency vogue among NFL coaches.)

"“If you’re a quarterback out there and you want to come play for the Raiders give us a call." (Okay, a little too blatant perhaps, but Jackson wants to get the word out there that there is an open competition for a QB on a 4-2 team. Competition is the defining characteristic of our free-market capitalist system--nothing wrong with a little Monday morning Milton Friedman'ing from the old ball coach, DBSF guesses.)

“You just kind of rattle all the trees and see everything that’s out there, what best fits us.” (So, basically Jackson is entertaining the idea of hiring any currently unemployed QB with limited, if any, knowledge of the Raider's system rather than go with Boller, who's been practicing with the team for the last two years?) Now DBSF recognizes that Boller is basically a better looking Derek Anderson (i.e., he's Joey Harrington minus all those starts which allowed teams to recognize just how 'Joey Harrington' Joey Harrington really is), but there has to be something said for head coaches at least feigning support for their back-up QB.