ALAMEDA, Calif. - It must have been agony for Al Davis, making the ultimate concession, admitting to himself as well as the world that using the first pick in the 2007 NFL Draft on quarterback JaMarcus Russell was a mistake of considerable magnitude.

Al does mea culpas very poorly, if he does them at all. Davis does not like to admit failure, especially when the failure can be attributed to him.

And virtually everything which happens to and with the Oakland Raiders is attributable to Al Davis.

Particularly on draft days. Particularly when it involves players who fit the Davis style, fit the vertical offense, throwing deep and gaining big yards, a style effective 40 years ago but one that doesn't work in the 21st Century.

As the Raiders' record in most of the 21st Century, starting with the 2003 season, attests.

But it wasn't only a dated system that doomed Russell, and the Raiders' ill-thought plans, it was his own feeling of self-importance and inability to comprehend what was demanded of a man who was paid $36 million, if very few compliments.

He was not helped by the Raiders' poor offensive lines, Russell getting hit often, losing balls on fumbles and losing confidence.

A year and a half ago, in Sporting News magazine, Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway said Russell's only chance at success is to get out of Oakland.

"The fastest way to ruin a young quarterback,'' read the story under Elway's byline in the fall of 2008, "is to put him on a bad team, with a bad line, with no weapons, with no continuity in the coaching staff. That pretty much describes the current Raiders. The game has passed Al Davis by, and he's the only one who doesn't know it.''

What we'll never know is what Russell might have done under different circumstances. He didn't have much support. He didn't show much initiative.

The two most denigrating terms in sport are choke and bust, words implying someone didn't meet expectations. Russell fit into the second category, but is it because what the Raiders saw in him never existed, because as Elway pointed out Russell was in trouble without better teammates, or because JaMarcus was profligate?

He can throw a ball from here (meaning the Raiders practice facility) halfway to Canton, which was a start. However he often showed up overweight and out of shape, which was the finish.

He had a canon. He rarely had touch. Forever it can be debated whether he ever had a clue.

Davis will be 81 on the Fourth of July. He is experienced. Also stubborn. "I don't believe in addition through subtraction,'' has been his mantra when asked about trimming a roster of supposed top players. He doesn't allow himself to look bad.

His team has looked terrible, seven consecutive seasons with no fewer than 11 defeats. When head coach Tom Cable benched JaMarcus last year, surely it was not without Davis' tacit approval.

Al realized finally Russell was not the savior, was not even the starter.

The recent acquisition of Jason Campbell in a trade from the Redskins changed the dynamic entirely. Already, Kyle Boller had been signed as a free agent. Bruce Gradkowski and Charlie Frye were returning.

Four quarterbacks would be more than enough. Five would have been a show of panic. The stories started circulating that Russell's time in Oakland was about to end, and so it has ended.

JaMarcus wasn't a bad guy, and that cannot go unappreciated. He is being listed with Ryan Leaf as the greatest mistakes in recent NFL draft history, but Leaf was the second selection in the 1998 draft, and Leaf was a jerk. Russell is not.

JaMarcus was cooperative and pleasant. He just wasn't able to figure out that a pro quarterback is supposed to be a leader, the player who practices harder than his teammates, who studies longer than his teammates, the player who takes on the responsibility of winning games.

Russell was impressive in leading LSU over Notre Dame and Brady Quinn in the 2007 Sugar Bowl. "He throws the ball better than anyone I have ever seen,'' Tom Martinez, a quarterback coach who had worked with Russell, Elway and Tom Brady told the New York Times.

With the Raiders, he threw it everywhere but the right places. His lack of accuracy, and his getting sacked when unable to get rid of the ball were his undoing.

"We're working through trying to get a confidence level with everybody involved from routes, his footwork, his decision-making, the protection,'' Ted Tollner, Raiders passing game coordinator said of Russell last fall.

"It's a package of things, but for his position when you're playing poorly, a lot of it falls on the quarterback.''

The quarterback who has taken his own fall, from No. 1 to nowhere.