Raiders’ Walker ready for Denver, er, “that team”

By Anthony Carroll  |   Monday, June 09, 2008  |  Comments( 22 )

Oakland Raiders
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The Denver Broncos -- at least their fans -- couldn’t have been any happier when Oakland Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin told the Sacramento Bee last week that wide receiver Javon Walker is “little heavy right now.”

That means Oakland paid $55 million for the “fat, injured guy.”

If you own a residence in Denver, that’s a great way to look at it.

The ex-Broncos and current Raiders wideout made a transition this offseason to and from two franchises that truly despise each other. Bad blood between Raiders owner Al Davis and Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan dates back almost 20 years, and a rivalry between fans of the two teams goes all the way back to 1960, when the pair of franchises comprised half of the AFL West division.

Since then, the rivalry has grown stronger. So strong, apparently, that simply putting on one of the two team’s helmets clears your memory of the other team.

In a Saturday interview with the 29-year-old Walker, the wideout referred to the Denver ball club he played two seasons for as “that team.”

“That team is going to see me in the (regular season) opener,” Walker told ESPN. “They are going to see me, I’ll tell you that. They’ll see what they are missing.”

Right now, Denver doesn’t think it's missing too much, though.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pounder missed half of last season with a right knee injury and, after starting off the year with two 100-plus yard outings, never registered more than two catches or 20 yards in a single contest. Over the last three seasons, Walker has missed 23 games to injury (he tore his ACL during the 2005 season opener with the Green Bay Packers) and has averaged just 33 grabs, 466 yards and three TDs per year. In all, he’s had three surgeries to his right knee.

Now, on top of all the baggage, Walker is carrying a little more baggage in the form of pounds on his frame, according to Kiffin.

With $16 million guaranteed to Walker as a part of the six-year, $55 million deal he inked in March, it looks like the Raiders were duped, big time.

The people closest to Walker, however, don’t agree with that assessment one bit. Linebacker Kirk Morrison, in fact, calls the Walker acquisition the most important of the 2008 offseason.

“Javon Walker was a guy who we played against when he was at Denver and the guy caught every single pass that was thrown to him -- if it was high, if it was low, if it was almost touching the ground,” Morrison said two weeks ago.

“It was hard for our cornerbacks to compete with this guy, and to have him on our football team now, I’m excited to have him, because I think he’s a guy who’s just gonna change the game for us on the offensive side of the ball.”

One of the cornerbacks who used to compete opposite Walker, 24-year-old Stanford Routt, agrees.

“He still has that good foot quickness. He’s real fast off the line of scrimmage from what I’ve seen so far,” Routt told the Mercury News Thursday. “Who knows? Maybe his knee isn’t 100 percent. Who really cares? The only thing that matters is when September comes. From the looks of things, he’s going to be fine.”

Even the man who first generated the buzz surrounding Walker’s weight has admitted it doesn’t appear to be a major concern.

“Javon is so explosive,” Kiffin told beat writer Steve Corkran on the second day of minicamp. “We think that he’s going to be the best he’s been in years, as far as health-wise. I know he’s excited about this upcoming season and to prove a lot of people wrong.”

Walker doesn’t want to just prove a lot of people wrong, though, but an entire NFL franchise. Or, as he likes to call them, “that team.”

“I just can’t wait to show what I can do in the first game against that team.”

Anthony Carroll can be contacted at
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About Anthony Carroll

Anthony Carroll began writing for RealFootball365.com on Sept. 26, 2005, making him one of the longest tenured contributors to the “365” team. As a senior writer, Anthony has taken on the task of delivering original content to the silver and black faithful year round, despite having to deal...
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CommentsComments: 22  |  Sign Up  View all comments
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No.1
RaiderSensation		04:14 AM
06/09/2008
There was another article about Walker's weight and they explained because he's nursing his injury, he can't really workout as...
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No.2
raider99xRyanS		04:44 AM
06/09/2008
Either way, I'm not worried at all. Covering a Big Wideout like Walker is definately a 2 defender job. Even if he only catches 50...
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No.3
05:17 AM
06/09/2008
I can see it now, walker catches a bomb from russell and burns chump bailey for a td on the 1st drive. and then hall or aso put a...
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