Raiders QB Russell gets to work after signing record deal

"I personally think they should start him this week," Denver coach Mike Shanahan said in a conference call with Bay Area writers. "If they're paying him that kind of money they should throw him into the fire and put him in against the Broncos."

Fat chance that will happen as the Raiders will wait two weeks until they even place Russell on the roster.

Russell mostly took part in individual drills Wednesday, but also ran some plays for the scout team. Coach Lane Kiffin said Russell looked in good shape and was not rusty, but said he will have to figure out how to make up for the lost time with extra practices that don't limit the time of the starting quarterback.

"He's at a definite disadvantage," Kiffin said. "You're talking about hundreds and hundreds of reps in preseason and being in games. We can't simulate what he missed. That's put him in a tough situation."

Russell earned the spot as the top pick after going 25-4 as LSU's starting quarterback. He finished his career with the Tigers by throwing the second-most touchdown passes (52) and having the second-highest completion percentage (61.9 percent) in school history.

But adjusting to the NFL is not easy. The three quarterbacks taken in the first round a year ago all started games last season. But they all were in training camp and played in the exhibition season. Denver quarterback Jay Cutler, who started the final five games as a rookie last season, said he doesn't believe he ever would have gotten in if he hadn't participated in training camp.

"He's an exceptional athlete, exceptional quarterback but it's a position where if you rush somebody in there bad things can happen," Cutler said. "He's going to come along fine but it's going to take a little bit."

For now, the Raiders are just happy to have their quarterback of the future under contract. His teammates said his late arrival wasn't much of a distraction because they didn't expect him to play much early in the season anyway.

"Coming in we kind of already knew that whether he was here or not, he probably wasn't going to be the starter for the first game, so we just moved on," receiver Ronald Curry said.