Boot Camp

Football Digest, Oct, 2001 by Dennis Georgatos

Jerry Rice, preparing for his much-anticipated debut on the Raiders, is on a mission: He wants to prove that he can still be a valuable weapon

AFTER 16 HALL OF FAME-CALIBER SEASONS WITH the San Francisco 49ers, Jerry Rice became just another victim of the salary cap. And for that, the Oakland Raiders are eternally grateful.

So what if Rice's best years are behind him? The Raiders think the wideout can be the final piece of their Super Bowl puzzle. "We don't discriminate against 38-year-olds," Oakland coach Jon Gruden says. "We think he can play, or he wouldn't be here."

Rice's release in June by San Francisco had been anticipated for nearly a year, producing $2.5 million in cap relief for the team after Rice rebuffed its proposed $1 million bonus to retire as a 49er. In the weeks leading up to his release, Rice, with the 49ers' permission, pursued job prospects with the Detroit Lions, Seattle Seahawks, and Raiders before finally settling on the Silver and Black. The move allowed him to remain in the San Francisco Bay area while fulfilling his desire to keep playing.

"This is a beginning for me," says Rice. "I think this is going to jump-start my career all over again. I'm not saying I have to be the main guy, but what I want to do is just come in here and do what I've been doing my entire career. That's basically just being a little kid out on the football field, doing something that I love."

Rice's love of the game is what kept him going even as a detached business decision pushed him and the 49ers apart. His release was driven both by economics and the development of the team's young receivers, who need more playing time.

"You always regret when you have to say goodbye to a player who has contributed as much as he has to this organization," 49ers general manager Terry Donahue says. "It's never easy to say goodbye to any player. But we have young receivers--players like J.J. Stokes and Terrell Owens and Tai Streets--who are now going to have to step up. They're going to have their opportunity to carry the torch. It's time for our organization to move on."

From strictly a football standpoint, 49ers coach Steve Mariucci agrees with Gruden that Rice--coming off a 75-catch, seven-touchdown season--remains a very capable receiver, even if he's no longer the offensive force he once was. "It starts with his attitude," Mariucci says. "He's bound and determined to show and to prove to everybody that he does have something left, and I believe he does. He's had a fantastic career--we all know that.

"What everybody is anxiously awaiting is to see what he does this year: how they use him, how productive he'll be, and how he'll fit into that scheme. And his value is more than just catching passes and scoring touchdowns for a football team. He's got great leadership ability."

It's not the first time the Raiders have recruited players from their nemesis across the Bay. Ronnie Lott, Roger Craig, and Tom Rathman all moved to the Raiders from the 49ers, and during this offseason running back Charlie Garner, San Francisco's leading rusher the past two seasons, signed with Oakland as a free agent and then helped lobby Rice to join his new team. Says Garner, "He's going to raise the quality of our play, no question."

Over his career, Rice has averaged 80 receptions and 11.6 touchdowns per season. In Oakland, he'll be playing next to Tim Brown--a Hall of Fame-caliber player in his own right--and the duo should give Oakland a receiving presence it has lacked for years. Brown has led the Raiders in receiving for the past nine seasons. During that span, the only other Raiders player to have at least 50 receptions in a season was a running back, Harvey Williams in 1995.

While Brown is expected to remain the go-to guy, Rice obviously gives quarterback Rich Gannon another viable option. Most important, opposing teams now have one more area of concern in defending an Oakland squad that should be extremely dangerous running the ball with Garner and Tyrone Wheatley, both of whom rushed for. 1,000 yards last season.

"Jerry has a lot of catches--so if he doesn't catch 75 balls this year, no one's going to look down on him, especially in this offense," says Brown, who had 76 receptions and a career-high 11 touchdowns in the Raiders' 12-4, AFC West-winning 2000 season. "If we can get 40 or 50 balls out of him and I catch the same or a few more, or vice versa, it's going to be a great year."

Initially, there were concerns that Rice and Brown--both of whom are used to being the centerpiece of a passing attack--would clash. But both players have downplayed the possibility of problems, saying there's plenty of room in the Raiders playbook for the two of them.

"Look at Cris Carter and Randy Moss in Minnesota," Brown says. "They're both the men there. We're probably not going to throw the ball as much as they do, but in this system you have to be willing to do what's going to be best for the team."

Gruden says his primary responsibility is to make sure the offense runs smoothly. He's not concerned with soothing egos. "My No. 1 concern will never be to try to accommodate people," the coach says. "We are trying to put our best players in positions to make plays. That goes for Tim Brown. He's going to be a huge part of this attack. And we expect Jerry to fill in and make plays also. I don't want to lose sight of anybody else, either."