NFL News: Oakland Raiders New Players And Injuries

No one would have ever guessed there were quarterbacks both dropping and popping up in NFL. Oakland Raiders signed Cal product Kyle Boller pretty much as Cable spoke, it was announced later. Then Thursday night, it was learned that Raiders quarterback Bruce Gradkowski tore a pectoral muscle while lifting weights on Wednesday night.

Bruce Gradkowski will undergo surgery for the injury on Friday but is expected to be fully healed by the start of training camp in July, his agent, Ralph Cindrich, confirmed in an e-mail. The injury was first reported by ProFootballTalk.com. Bruce Gradkowski provided an immediate spark after replacing Russell, leading Oakland to comeback victories in two of his first three starts. 

He got hurt midway through his fourth start, suffering a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee and a partially torn MCL in his right knee, and did not play the rest of the season. He completed 54.7 % of his passes with six touchdowns and three interceptions on the season. 
 

Meanwhile, Bruce Gradkowski set to compete with JaMarcus Russell for the starting job, will have surgery today, a league source said. He is expected to resume throwing in four weeks. The team did not say if Boller, 29, would have a chance to compete with Russell and Gradkowski. Russell, the No. 1 overall pick in 2007, lost the job midway through last season. Gradkowski started three games and Charlie Frye, who is also back, started three games.

Kyle Boller has 50 interceptions and 48 touchdowns in 46 career NFL starts for Baltimore and St. Louis, has one thing going for him. The former first-round pick has a history with new Raiders offensive coordinator Hue Jackson, who was Baltimore's quarterbacks coach in Boller's last season there, 2008. Kyle Boller was the starter in the preseason before sustaining a season-ending shoulder injury. Of course, the Ravens had drafted quarterback Joe Flacco that year to eventually replace Boller, the 19th overall pick in 2003. His best season was 2004, when he started every game and passed for 2,559 yards with 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

"He's here. He's working, He's doing everything that everybody else is doing. ... That's all I can tell you." Raiders head coach Tom Cable said.

Oakland Raiders head coach Tom Cable calmly walked to the podium Thursday, addressed the beat writers in a predraft chat and then was on his way. Earlier, Cable broke away from his just-draft talk mandate to praise receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, who struggled in his rookie year.

"You guys will be excited when you see ... the improvement Darrius has already made, That guy has jumped out at us since winter ... just the quality of work he's done. Probably no one is more excited about a guy on our team than Darrius right now. He really, really has taken this thing leaps and bounds, further probably than what we thought we could go with it this quickly. It will be nice to get him on the field and get him into coverages and get him into route concepts.” Raiders head coach Tom Cable added.