Calais Campbell
DE / Jr.
Miami FL
6' 8'' / 280 lbs.

POSITIVES

From a purely physical standpoint, Russell casts a truly imposing shadow. Built more like a defensive end, than quarterback, Russell shows the power and strength that his size indicates in his game. His arm is an absolute cannon, and not just in terms of the deep ball; He throws the short and intermediate routes with tremendous velocity. Over the course of the season, Russell continued to develop as not only a player, but also as a leader. He showed great development in working through his progressions and finding the open wide outs. He’s a superb athlete who can tuck and run with surprising agility.

NEGATIVES

Russell is far from a finished product. He's still got a ton of room for growth, particularly in making quicker and better decisions with the football. He probably isn't as "NFL-ready" as a player like Quinn, whatever that means, but hey, Vince Young wasn't as "NFL-ready" as Matt Leinart either. All in all, Russell's main problems are with paint and polish to his game, quicker reads and getting rid of the ball more quickly - All very coachable stuff.

FINAL WORD

Russell came on like a freight train this season. He went from being a great athlete, who happened to play QB, to an elite QB. Much of the credit goes to Russell himself for dedicating himself to his position, and really learning to play the game, rather than simply relying on his athletic advantage to make plays. Russell is only a junior, and there was much debate on whether or not he'd benefit from another year in college. The short answer is, of course, that he would. But at some point you have to look at this kid, who plays with confidence, leadership and who continues to grow in terms of being able to make all the throws and run an offense, and you just realize that he needs to move on. I'm not completely sold on him going No.1 overall, but the Raiders could do much worse than to roll the dice on Russell.