The Rai-duhs got themselves a shiny new QB today, signing ex-Saints QB Aaron Brooks to a two year deal. The Silver & Black faithful are doing much rejoicing.

Settle down, Raiders fans. This is not the QB you are looking for.

Two years ago, Brooks killed us (killed us!) in fantasy football. See, we had a choice of either drafting him or Donovan McNabb. We took Brooks. McNabb went onto the Super Bowl and an MVP season. Brooks didn't. The Saints did not much of anything and our team, which we thought was maybe the best team we had ever drafted, barely made the playoffs.

But what does fantasy football have to do with real life football as we all know fantasy and reality are two different things (something we know plenty of as Natalie Portman has yet to return our calls)? Well, the reason Brooks killed us is the same reason he's going to kill the Rai-duhs. One week, he'd go off and throw for over 300 yards, run for a TD, and throw for a couple. Then he'd just disappear for a few weeks, just basically do nothing. Which is fine if he's just doing what he can to help the team win. Except he wasn't. The Saints didn't win. And he was as much a part of the reason why as anything.

See, Brooks is the dreaded fantasy-tease. He's got mad skills but can never put it all together. So every year the fantasy gurus would say something along the lines of "this is the year he puts it all together and kicks it, kicks it root down." And then every year, he'd show glimmers of greatness in between long troughs of suckiness. Brooks is well known for having a great arm, great talent, shaky work habits, and an amazing ability to throw the wrong pass at the wrong time. In other words, he's Kerry Collins with better running skills but without the resume. He is just another in a long line of veteran QBs hailed as the Raiders' savior who is quite obviously not.

Oh, the bloggers say, this time it'll be different. Brooks was playing for a bad team so you can't make assumptions based on previous performances. As opposed to the Raiders. And this time, Brooks has talent surrounding him. Unlike the Saints who have had Deuce McAllister, Joe Horn, and Dante Stallworth.

We have to wonder just what exactly happened here. Was Brooks the target of the Raiders affections from the get-go, the apple of the Two Al's eyes? Or did they get themselves into a pickle of a mess because all the top tier QBs have already been signed and some of the second and third tier QBs have been signed as well. Hell, Jon Kitna got himself signed before Brooks. It was either Brooks or Joey Harrington and that would not have been good.

Unless, this is part of a plan. Maybe the Raiders signed Brooks only because they wanted a caretaker for the O as they groomed themselves a shiny, new QB. Al is supposedly in love with Vince Young and the fact he seems to be, for no good reason, dropping in draft projections might make him that much more draftable to Al because Al loves to zig when everyone else in football is zagging.

Or maybe not. Maybe there is no plan. Maybe it's just the usual Raiders making it up as they go along. We shall see.