The time has come for a sea-change. The 5-year starting tenure of Raider MLB, 'Captain Kirk' Morrison, is coming to an end. After Morrison was given a mere 3rd Round tender earlier this month the Raiders signed Ricky Brown today, giving the former BC star LB $1.7million and 2nd round tender. Two weeks ago Oakland acquired Cleveland LB/DE Kam Wimbley; today Cable gave "his opinion" to the press that Kam would be playing OLB and that he was pleased with Trevor Scott's development at OLB. With the obvious push for youth, discrimination against older players, and recent signings and signals, odds are that Kirk Morrison will not be anchoring the defensive middle when the 2010 season kicks off in 5 months.
On March 11th, Morrison responded to Adam Schein's questions during a Sirius radio interview:
"I'm technically an Oakland Raider still. ... But at the same time, you have to explore your options for the future, for the long term. There are some teams out there that would be a good fit ... ." Morrison declined to name those teams but added, "There are some teams we're [he and agent, Bruce Tollner] looking at and we've talked to ... hopefully, in the next couple of weeks we can get something done ... either with the Raiders or with other teams. I know next year I'm going to be playing football. I just want to make sure I'm in the best, most comfortable position I can be in."
Kirk was never a true MLB, he did not punish ball carriers, knock the ball loose or consistently fill-gaps and meet invading RBs at the point-of-entry, nor did he lead the D as an effective field marshal. Kirk did have speed, was a sure tackler, hard player who hustled to the ball and a decent cover LB. He would have made a far better OLB - but he played and did his best where he was placed. I wish him the best.
We would expect, if not confidently assume, that a true MLB will be drafted - perhaps Iowa's dominant ILB Pat Angerer, TCU's ILB Daryl Washington [who the Raiders reviewed at TCU Monday] or Missouri's OLB, Sean Weatherspoon, who, at 240lbs, is convinced he can play ILB. We are all anxious to see who Raiders HQ decides will replace Captain Kirk - who will be our MLB this promising season.