Routt staying on his toes

I need to be wide open and honest for a minute Nation. At the end of the 2009 season, I truly thought that Stanford Routt would be finding a new home in 2010. I thought the Raiders were cutting all the trash from the roster. Then, as if out of nowhere, the Raiders gave this guy the highest free agent tender you can give a player, a first and third round draft choice. They sent a message, loud and clear, that Stanford Routt was not going anywhere.

Now, I’m the type who watches every video I can find of the Raiders players, coaches, staff, news channels, Raiders.com, whatever they are and wherever they are. I think there is a lot of information in the videos, straight from the sources. Today I turn on my videos and I hear all of this talk about how Stanford Routt may take over as the second best cornerback on the team.

To be frank, I’m puzzled. This is a guy who goes from being on the bubble (in my opinion) to being the projected starter?

His teammate, Nnamdi Asomugha, had this to say, “Stanford had a really good mini-camp and OTA’s, and I think we challenged him a little more because we wanted to see more out of him at the nickel position with the things we were doing. And he’s been doing great at it, so now when we come here in camp and he’s playing the outside corner. If he continues to build on that, you never know how it will unfold.

“I do get the sense that he’s playing well, but you know, year six, by now you have to have it,” Asomugha continued. “If he doesn’t have it by now then we’re like, ‘What’s going on?'”

So somehow, between the end of the 2009 season and May’s mini-camp, Routt developed enough to go from being a guy who might get cut to a guy who might be starting on opening day. I wonder if this speaks more to the lack of depth at the position for Oakland, or just the fact that they have lost faith in Chris Johnson. It’s hard to say which, but even up until the other day I thought Routt would have a tough time seeing even the nickel package with Mike Mitchell and Auburn rookie Walter McFadden sneaking up on his heels.

Evidently, I was way off about Routt. Many of the folks who I have talked to were in the same boat as me about this guy. Look, there’s no reason to think that he couldn’t have shown improvement. He hasn’t had many injuries that I can remember and he is certainly the prototypical big and fast Raiders cornerback as far as his physical abilities.

“It’s a pretty heated competition, actually,” said head coach Tom Cable. “If you ask me what I see in Stan, I see a guy that when he’s focused, he’s an outstanding talent. I really felt like when he was around in OTA’s there was a much different focus about him, I see it in camp already. I think Stan probably feels like it’s time and it’s his time. I’m all for that because he’s definitely, definitely a very talented guy that can help us.

“I think it’s a little bit of a light bulb,” Cable continued. “It’s year six, so it’s time, you know?”

Well, actually, I don’t know. I’m certainly not convinced that just because a guy is in his sixth year, he should be a starter. I guess I’ll have to wait and see what happens on the field in the upcoming preseason games here. But this is a situation that I will definitely be keeping a close eye on. Currently, Chris Johnson is getting most of the reps on the first team, but that could change over the next month.

I’m not trying to say Routt is no good, I’m just saying if he is number two, then I want to see him being starter material. By that I mean he could start for any other team that is not thin at cornerback.

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