Dickey: Let JaMarcus play

SAN FRANCISCO - JaMarcus Russell’s debut was moved up again by the Raiders’ latest loss, to Kansas City on Sunday. Not because Daunte Culpepper played poorly, but because the Raiders are again fading into irrelevancy. Soon, it will be obvious that there’s no point in giving the majority of snaps to either Culpepper or Josh McCown because they aren’t the club’s future.

Rookie coach Lane Kiffin has the Raiders on the right track. They had only 30 yards of penalties on Sunday, for instance. There was only one seriously botched play, when Nnamdi Asomugha ran into returner Chris Carr on a punt, which resulted in a fumble that the Chiefs recovered.

But the talent level just isn’t high enough, and I see no reason to change my preseason estimate of a 5-6 win season for the Raiders.

A combination of a zone-blocking scheme with cut blocks and Kiffin’s short-pass offense made it seem the offensive line was much improved, but teams have caught up to that. The last two teams, San Diego and Kansas City, have shut down the Raiders’ running game by putting linebackers close to the line of scrimmage, and the Raiders don’t have the deep-passing game to thwart that.

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