Bad news for the Oakland Raiders. QB Jason Campbell suffered a broken collarbone in the second quarter of Sunday's game against the Cleveland Browns, and he's expected to be out for the entire season, ESPN reports. That's a big blow to a team that's right in the thick of the AFC West race.
The Raiders now turn to QB Kyle Boller, who went 8-of-14 for 100 yards on Sunday.
Or do they? Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reports that, shortly after Campbell's injury, the Raiders began reaching out to the Cincinnati Bengals regarding QB Carson Palmer. As we know, Palmer wants to be traded but the Bengals have refused to budge. We shall see before Tuesday's deadline if Bengals owner Mike Brown remains firm in his no-trade talk.
(By the way, the Raiders don't have a second, third or fourth round pick in the 2012 draft. There's not much ammo there to make a trade happen unless they start selling off 2013.)
The Raiders, like the Kansas City Chiefs, base so much of their offense on the run. Darren McFadden, Michael Bush and others are the focal point of the offense but the Raiders passing game, including WR Darrius Heyward-Bey, has been looking better in recent weeks. All that momentum is now gone with Campbell out and, barring a trade deadline move, Boller is their new quarterback this season.
This should be good news for the Chiefs, who travel to Oakland this weekend. Boller is a very average quarterback -- career 56.7 percent passer, 48 touchdowns and 51 interceptions. The Chiefs' chances of winning in Oakland this season just increased.
That said, the Raiders' defensive line will still be a problem, their running game is really what you need to stop and it's not always easy to win in Oakland. So this is by no means a gimme (and KC will probably be 'dogs in this game).