The same could be said for the way the coach handled the kid quarterback in the Raiders preseason opener, an 18-6 win over the San Francisco 49ers.

Kiffin played it safe, the Raiders made no turnovers, and he checked down to backup Andrew Walter in the second quarter.

Before taking the rest of the evening off, Russell completed two of five passes for 13 yards. His first pass, a deep sideline pass to Drew Carter, was in the air too long and knocked down by Walt Harris.

Russell was sacked to end one drive and threw nowhere near tight end Zach Miller to end another.

"He missed a couple of passes we would have liked to get," Kiffin said. "But we've got a lot more games to go."

When asked if he would have liked to get in more of a rhythm, Russell said, "I do, but the situation of the game, coach felt like that was enough for me tonight. Other than that I thought we were getting in a groove. I wanted to go. But that's coach's decision."

Russell said he was encouraged by "getting the grasp of things once we were out there," but noted, "Kind of went fast, though."

Not only was Russell's playing time limited, but so was his playbook. Rather than ask Russell to execute some of the bootlegs and reverse rollouts, which are the bread-and-butter of the Raiders passing game, Kiffin saved those plays for Walter.

Despite the 49ers having issues with a pass rush, he Raiders decided to keep Russell in the pocket rather than expose him on the perimeter.

"With JaMarcus we didn't run play-action where you come outside the pocket with (naked bootlegs) or keepers," Kiffin said. "That's a big part of our offense. I just didn't feel about getting him on the move that much. That's where he could take some big hits in the first game. We ran a bunch of those with Andrew. Those were there the whole time with JaMarcus. I just didn't feel like doing them."

CAMP CALENDAR: The Raiders break camp Wednesday, travel to Tennessee the following day and resume practice at the club facility in Alameda on Sunday.