Daunte Culpepper to meet old team; JaMarcus Russell may see time

The last time quarterback Daunte Culpepper faced an old employer, he single-handedly put up 30 points on the board. That was a Week 4 win at Miami, when Culpepper threw for two touchdowns and ran for three more.Head coach Lane Kiffin must have called that fleeting moment to memory when he Steelers 43 Polamalu jersey
decided this week to start Culpepper, who in his other three starts this season was rather ineffective.The 30-year-old QB, outside of that performance in Miami, has completed 65 of 113 passes this season for 742 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions. He's also 0-3 in his last three starts.Still, Kiffin is ready for a change ... again. Culpepper will come in and replace the struggling Josh McCown, who has started in the team's last two losses and has thrown just one touchdown pass to four interceptions. This season, McCown has started five games. On Sunday, Culpepper will also start his fifth."I just felt after watching film and putting everything together, it was time to go with Daunte and see if he can give us a little spark. It's nothing against Josh." Kiffin told the Associated Press on Wednesday. "Neither quarterback playing over the last month has done much for us offensively, obviously. We haven't produced anything close to what we would like to do. So we'll see if Daunte can give us a little spark this week going back to a place he was at for a long time," he continued.Kiffin's right. Neither quarterback has done much of anything over the past month. The Raiders are now losers of five straight and have been outscored by nearly 40 points in that span.The news of Kiffin's decision came just two days after 25-year-old backup Andrew Walter expressed his own displeasure with the quarterback situation in Oakland."I'm standing on the sideline on game day, so I'm saying to myself, 'I want to play,' but I'm not. My goal is never to be a career backup. I want to play and be a starter," Walter told the San Francisco Chronicle.Walter started eight games in 2006 and threw for 1,677 yards, three touchdowns and 13 interceptions. To be fair, though, the former Arizona State standout was playing under perhaps the worst offensive conditions in NFL history. Based on the way events have played out under Kiffin, it's still highly unlikely Walter sees a single rep this year.Instead, Culpepper will start against the Vikings, the team he played 81 games for from 1999-2005.However, both the Sacramento Bee and the NFL Network's Adam Schefter reported that Kiffin is also planning on using rookie JaMarcus Russell on Sunday. The 6-foot-6, 255-pounder could be used in "special packages" and is expected to serve as the primary backup behind Culpepper.Minnesota fields the worst-ranked pass defense in the league, so Kiffin's timing to test out both Culpepper and Russell in the same 2010 pro bowl Vikings 4 Brett Favre jersey
week isn't all too surprising.With the Vikings' Adrian Peterson out, with Culpepper and perhaps Russell in, fans may finally have something to be excited about.Nothing against McCown, but he's not the most exciting passer alive. Or on the team, for that matter.Anthony Carroll, a senior writer for , can be contacted at