Even Matt Millen warned Al Davis not to draft JaMarcus Russell
Matt Millen so mismanaged the Detroit Lions during his eight-year run as general manager that people forget that he won four Super Bowls as a linebacker during his playing career.
By
Ryan Wilson
•
1 min read
Matt Millen so mismanaged the Detroit Lions during his eight-year run as general manager that people forget that he won four Super Bowls as a linebacker during his playing career. But for all the knocks on Millen's inability to build a roster, even he could see that former LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell was going to be a bust at the next level.
In the 2007 NFL Draft, the Raiders had the first overall pick and the Lions were No. 2. Both teams were interested in Russell because of his off-the-charts physical skills, but there were also plenty of concerns around the league that Russell wasn't fully focused on football.
Millen experienced this firsthand during a pre-draft meeting when Russell repeatedly checked his watch in just a few minutes.
"I keep talking to him, I ask him questions and he looks at his watch," Millen recounted recently to 95.7 The Game. "I said, 'You got some place you need to be?' And he goes, 'Oh, no, no, no. I'm sorry. Sorry, sir.'
"So I ask him another question, he looks at his watch and I said, 'You're done, get out of here.'"
Russell then made his way to see then-Lions coach Rod Marinelli, who wound up kicking the quarterback out of his office too.
Millen continued: "So I'm done, I can't believe what I just witnessed, and so I call Al [Davis]. I get on the phone and I say, 'Coach, I don't know what you're thinking, but don't take JaMarcus Russell. Don't take Calvin Johnson, but don't take JaMarcus Russell."
Davis, who always loved big-armed quarterbacks, sounded surprised.
"Coach, the guy's a stiff," Millen said he told Davis. He couldn't pay attention for five minutes. He couldn't even pretend."
Of course, the Raiders selected Russell anyway, and the Lions took Johnson. Millen said that if the Raiders had taken Megatron, the Lions would have selected Adrian Peterson.
