By Jerry McDonald

Robert Gallery doesn’t need to look any further than Alex Smith to see how quickly he can go from draft bust to potential star.

Smith, the No. 1 pick overall in the 2005 draft, had his share of detractors following a horrendous rookie season that had a great deal to do with his supporting cast.

Then came his preseason breakthrough against the Chicago Bears, and while that doesn’t make Smith the next Joe Montana, he isn’t looked at as the new Jim Druckenmiller, either.

Gallery, the No. 2 pick overall in the 2004 draft, has surrendered sacks and had a false start penalty in each of the first two games. The more reactionary segements of Raider Nation have already proclaimed him a bust.

Which he is. As of this moment.

Should Gallery bury a few 49ers Sunday night, wall off a potential pass rusher and avoid flinching before the snap, he will instead be on the right track, and hailed as just the man to deal with Shawne Merriman when the San Diego Chargers come to town Sept. 11.

Bust? You mean the one in Canton?

That’s how things work in the NFL, where instant gratification is a way of life.

Gallery’s intro to pro football has hardly been ideal. He has felt every tremor in what is the NFL’s most unstable organization.

A left tackle at Iowa, the Raiders immedately began tinkering with Gallery at guard. He even played there for a few snaps in his NFL debut.

Then when Pittsburgh’s Clark Haagans used Langston Walker as a set of starting blocks, Gallery became a right tackle _ where he played for two seasons.

Moving from the right side to the left might not seem like much. But on an ESPN show the other day, former NFL lineman Mark Schlereth was explaining how it’s like being right-handed and suddenly being told to be a left-hander. He was preaching patience with Gallery.

And this was Mark Schlereth _ an ex-Denver Bronco whose first impulse seems to be to dump on his former AFC West rivals and who seems to have a good time doing it.

To make things more complicated, Gallery hears more voices than a schizophrenic who can’t find his meds.

His position coach as a rookie was Aaron Kromer. Who gave way to Jim Colletto. Who gave way to Irv Eatman, Jackie Slater and Art Shell.

Shell said the Raiders have essentially told the Oakland lineman to forget everything they ever knew about blocking and re-learn things his way. So far, it’s been slow going _ not only for Gallery, but every member of the offensive line.

When Shell insists, “Robert will be fine, I’m not worried about Robert,” take note that he has not said the same thing about Walker on the other side.

By Jerry McDonald

Missed another big story.

Randy Moss ripped Art Shell. Said so in the St. Paul Pioneer Press I picked up at the Minneapolis airport.

Moss was upset about being taken out in the middle of a drive, so he ripped the coach.

Except that I was standing right there, and it seemed to lack the conviction of a legitimate rip job. I have no doubt Moss is capable of doing it. I just don’t think this was it.
All Moss was doing was answering questions and being honest. He opened his statement by saying he wanted to keep things “in house” before giving an explaination of why he wished Shell wouldn’t have taken him out of the game following a 16-yard reception in the middle of a drive.

The Raiders were getting something going, Moss said, and he didn’t want to interrupt the flow. He wanted to play more. He said it all without ever raising his voice or curling his lip in a sneer.

Setting aside the fact that Moss apparently has no idea what “in house” means, his complaint was one I’ve heard several times before. It came from the 49ers Steve Young, who was never satisfied with the amount of work he got in the pre-season from George Seifert or Steve Mariucci.

Only Young was never characterized as havng “ripped” the coach. He was just a guy who wanted to play, with Seifert and Mariucci saving Young from himself.

Based on Oakland’s performance against Minnesota, and the way those 49ers teams played, the inescapable conclusion is that Young was wrong and Moss is right.

Young didn’t need to play. He understood every nuance of the offense and the 49ers didn’t need to risk having their most important player injured.

Moss needs to play if for no other reason to develop a chemsitry with Aaron Brooks, the Raiders starting quarterback unless he continues his one-completion-per-game pace.

Driving across the San Mateo Bridge on the way home from the airport, I heard KNBR’s Rod Brooks saying Andrew Walter needed to play more extensively against the 49ers. I think Brooks (Aaron, not Rod) should be the one playing extensively _ perhaps even deep into the third quarter.

If Brooks can’t turn things around, maybe he isn’t a fit for an offense which places much of the decision-making in his hands and has him holding the ball for long periods of time.

If that’s the case, the Raiders need to find out as soon as possible. Their original plan, whether they admit it or not, was for Brooks to start with Walter waiting in the wings.

And while six possessions isn’t enough to jerk the rug out from under Brooks, even the most skeptical fans and media seem to be shocked at how poorly the Raiders are playing with their first team offense.

As a side note, I can’t remember a single time since training camp began having seen Brooks and Moss putting in some extra work after practice to get their timing down.

So maybe they should do it Sunday against the 49ers.

By Jerry McDonald

    MINNEAPOLIS _ “Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it!”

     And there you have it.

     My first quote ever from Raiders defensive tackle Tommy Kelly.

     Let’s not quibble over the fact that I was unseen in an elevator at the team hotel, Kelly was around the corner and had no idea who he was talking to.

       Of course, once he saw the elevator was already inhabited by myself and another writer, he had a change of heart. Or maybe it my request that, “This is an elevator for interviews only.”

      I was only kidding, and Kelly knew it,  but he immediately pivoted and waited for the next elevator.

      Kelly has not granted an interview since he joined the Raiders as an undrafted free agent out of Mississippi State. He’s never rude about it. Quite pleasant, as a matter of fact. He even declines to talk off the record about the reasons for his silence.

      I wrote a story about Kelly anyway last season, doing some backround from his days in high school and college and attempting to solve the mystery.

     I talked to reporters who had covered him at both stops. Talked to some of his former coaches who remain in contact with him.

      The short version is that Kelly never became the player people expected him to be at Mississippi State. He gained the reputation as an underachiever, as a guy who doesn’t care.

     That characterization was refuted by some of his former coaches, who said Kelly’s easy manner is sometimes deceiving and gives the wrong impression. Kelly played hurt as a senior, his draft stock plummeted and the Raiders were able to sign him as a free agent.

    When the story ran, I asked Kelly if it was fair. He said it was, but told me not to quote him.

     If Kelly ever becomes as good as teammate Warren Sapp thinks he can be, it will be interesting if to see if he maintains his silence. Sapp still doesn’t think Kelly understands what he can accomplish in the NFL.

   “That’s the thing about this game,” Sapp said. “You can practice well, you can get into training camp well, but it’s all about putting it on the field. That’s the only place you’re ever judged about how good a player you are. The sky’s the limit for that monster. He’s just a monster.”

     After playing both end and tackle last season, Kelly has moved exclusively to the inside after Ted Washington was relesaed. He starts along with Sapp, with Terdell Sands the third tackle in the rotation. Anttaj Hawthorne is also getting work inside.

    His education continues tonight at the Metrodome, and if the Raiders are going to have any hope of controlling in the run in the best running division in the NFL, Kelly will have to play a key role.

     Whether he talks about it or not.

By Jerry McDonald 

   MINNEAPOLIS _ There’s talk of a moon here and there, but the return of Randy Moss to Minnesota at first glance does not amount to much.

     The St. Paul Pioneer Press has run a “Countdown to Randy” graphic on its front sports page, with an illustration of Moss pretending to pull his pants down, as he did in the end zone so famously in a playoff game against Green Bay.

    Sunday’s graphic signified “1 day.”

    It’s getting some commerical time as well, with the local Channel 9 hyping Moss’ attempts to beat his former team deep as part of its advertising for the Raiders-Vikings game.

     But all in all, it seems pretty tame.

      As Judd Zulgad wrote in a Minneapolis Star-Tribune blog:

      “I sense no buzz surrounding Monday night’s game. Maybe I’m wrong. But this Vikings team doesn’t resemble the team Moss left and it’s hard to tell if Moss resembles the player who spent several seasons beating cornerbacks and safeties all over the league.”

       Some of the comments to Zulgad’s blog indicated fans weren’t going to get overly fired up about a pre-season game, and that if Moss were returning in the regular season, it would be a different story.

     There were a few fans who believed Moss had become injury prone and therefore expendable. Some gave him his due but had simply moved on.

      At the Raiders team hotel downtown, usually a hotbed of fans in silver and black, there wasn’t the usual pack of autographs seekers and gawkers.

      Then again, downtown Minneapolis on a Sunday isn’t exactly Times Square. At the chain Mexican restaurant across the street from the hotel, only a few Twins fans had made the trek over from the Metrodome following a win over the Blue Jays and the bartender said it was pretty much business as usual for a Sunday.

    The majority of posters on a Vikings message board seemed to think Moss would get a warm if not raucous welcome.

     Then again, maybe I’m not giving the home base enough credit.

      The Mexican restaurant, on its happy hour menu, prominently advertised its new beer selection.

     “Now serving Blue Moon.”

     Moss declined a request from Minnesota writers for an interview, much as he has done with most media members ever since disclosing to HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel last year that he smoked marijuana “once in a blue moon.”

    The restaurant ad was a coincidence.

    I think.

      — A pretty intense practice Friday afternoon, one of the most lively of the season. Far from error-free, but mistakes were made with enthusiasm _ which beats the alternative of going through the motions.

     — Still tough to discern whether Andrew Walter is worthy of holding off Marques Tuiasosopo as the backup quarterback. Barring injury, it’s a foregone conclusion Aaron Brooks will start.

   — TE Randal Williams bulked up quite a bit since last year in an effort to become a full-fledged tight end, but you wonder if worked too hard in getting so big. He has been sidelined by back trouble and spent Friday’s practice pacing back and forth while his teammates practiced.

    — Oakland’s efforts to become more sure-handed on defense suffered a minor setback as Stanford Routt, Fabian Washington and Danny Clark all dropped potential interceptions.

   — Wide receiver Doug Gabriel had a conspicuous drop off a nice throw from Tuiasosopo, and Jerry Porter continued to build momentum to challenge for playing time.

   — One’s misfortune is another’s opportunity. DeJuan Green left practice after Shell said he was “dinged,” and Reshard Lee responded with his most sustained opportunity and looked good running the ball.

   — QB Kent Smith, the No. 4 quarterback, got some action in team sessions but Shell said it is unlikely he would play against Minnesota.

   — TE John Madsen, showing no sign of the oblique strain which slowed him earlier in the week, made a nice catch of a low throw over the middle from Tuiasosopo, outwrestling middle linebacker Kirk Morrison for the ball.

    –  Oakland’s goal line defense was stout in holding off the offense. Grant Irons dumped Justin Fargas for a loss on one play, and Tyler Brayton came up with an interception off Walter when off a ball deflected by Jarrod Cooper.

    — WR Johnnie Morant, second in the NFL in yardage in the preseason in 2005, caught a deep post for a long gain from Brooks but juggled the ball before holding on.

     The battle at wide receiver beyond Randy Moss, Gabriel and Porter is a close one, with veteran Alvis Whitted, Morant, rookie free agent Will Buchanon and seventh-round draft pick Kevin McMahan competing for what could be three spots. Carlos Francis remains on the outside looking in with a hamstring pull. Francis is still walking gingerly and rehabbing in the pool.

   — Haven’t seen a lot of Zack Crockett as the goal line runner, but Shell warned that may not be the case later on.

    “I know what Crockett can do,” Shell said. “I want to find out what the other guys can do.

     — Jerry  McDonald

      Compared to yours truly, the Raiders first-team offense against Philadelphia looked like Ken Stabler against the Minnesota Vikings.

     In a Wednesday story on Will Buchanon and Timi Wusu, I had the Raiders “losing” to the Philadelphia Eagles 16-10, and it sailed right past the editing desk, which rightly assumes I should know the winning team.

    No excuses.

     Thanks to all the e-mailers who showed surprising restraint in pointing out a stupid mistake.

 _ Jerry McDonald