Morant ran out of time in Oakland

By Darrell Laurant  |   Thursday, August 30, 2007  |  Comments( 98 )

Oakland Raiders
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Everyone kept waiting for Johnnie Morant to blossom into Randy Moss, without the attitude.

Apparently, it's not going to happen. At least not in Oakland.

Morant was cut by the Raiders earlier this week, essentially crowded off the roster by the versatility of rookie draft pick Johnnie Lee Higgins.

It's like the Eagles once sang: "Johnny come lately, there's a new kid in town."

Or maybe that was "Johnnie come lately."

As a high school senior in Parsippany, N.J., Morant was rated the top receiver in the East and No. 3 in the nation by a number of the top scouting services. He went to Syracuse University, where he was supposed to become the next Marvin Harrison.

But choosing the Orange turned out to be a serious mistake. With Donovan McNabb gone, Syracuse struggled to find continuity at quarterback, rotating starters for all four of Morant's seasons there. He did put up four 100-yard games during his career and caught 88 passes for 1,535 yards, and people said as soon as he got into the NFL, where he would have somebody to get him the ball, everyone would see just how good he was.

Ironically, the next Randy Moss wound up on the same team with the current Randy Moss. Moss and Jerry Porter got most of the catches, with Ronald Curry snatching up the extras. Morant largely sat, except on special teams.

Several NFL draft gurus called the Raiders' selection of Morant in the fifth round in 2004 a steal. That was before Morant went undercover.

He is 6-foot-4, 220 pounds and has been clocked as fast as 4.3. He dropped more than his share of passes early in his Syracuse career, but then learned to lock onto anything close to him -- which, in the days of R.J. Anderson, Troy Nunes and Perry Patterson, wasn't often.

Would it have mattered if Morant had gone to some other college with a true Division I quarterback? Maybe. But as it turned out, he ran into a similar situation in Oakland, as Aaron Brooks and Andrew Walter took turns at the position.

As head coach Lane Kiffin put it in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle last week, "Nobody here is on scholarship."

He never saw Johnnie Morant play for Parsippany High School or Syracuse University. The only Morant he knew was the one slipping down the depth chart in Oakland, and the word "potential" was wearing thin after three years.

Maybe that potential is still there. But the Raiders didn't have time for it.

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CommentsComments: 98  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
Raiderusmaximus		11:14 PM
08/30/2007
Boo Hoo , anyway Morant is gone. Get over it. I like what I see in Higgins. As for Daunte at QB, its gonna be a tough decision. ...
No.2
Raider Glory		11:23 PM
08/30/2007
Hey Dakota and Raider sensation!! Try!! Just try putting yourself in Huntleys shoes for a second if you can!! The guy out played ...
No.3
blat		11:45 PM
08/30/2007
If no one on this team has a scholarship, then I'd say at least one's got some incriminating photos. Moses has to be the most ...
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