No one should be surprised by this. He was by far and away the WORST starting safety in the league. If I'm wrong, please, let me know and name who was worse.

with Stu's comments here. I love how he rips the Raiders' man-to-man defense. Saying other team use it as a "gimmick" but the Raiders use it as their base D. Stuart Schweigert's release from the Oakland Raiders is liberating by Hugh Bernreuter | The Saginaw News Wednesday May 21, 2008, 9:19 PM Tuesday was not a day of mourning in the Stuart Schweigert household. It was, instead, a day of liberation. The Oakland Raiders released Schweigert, cutting him from the roster and from their payroll. The move made the four-year safety a free agent. Free is the right word. "It was definitely something I was waiting for, something I've been expecting for two months," Schweigert said. "Everybody knew it was coming, but I still had to go to the mandatory camps. "It was terrible, sitting through the meetings and working on the defense they were putting in and all the time knowing I wasn't going to be a part of it. I wasn't into it mentally, emotionally or physically." Getting his release, however, has recharged Schweigert, who played four years for the Raiders after Oakland picked him in the third round out of Purdue in the 2004 draft. "I'm ready to go," Schweigert said. "The Raiders have been trying to trade me for two months now, so my agent has been talking to teams who are interested. Now those talks get a lot more serious." As the 2007 season ended, Schweigert could sense his days as a Raider were numbered. Criticisms became louder, and he finished the season on the bench. "I basically didn't play the last five games of the season, yet I was fourth on the team in tackles," Schweigert said. "But they kept talking about how I wasn't a good tackler. "In all my years in football, I've never been around a more negative atmosphere. Nobody had my back, even when in the years before I had their backs 100 percent." According to Schweigert, part of the blame is in the type of defense the Raiders use. It offers little help for the free safety. "I would make a bunch of tackles, but the highlight on (ESPN) SportsCenter would be the one that I missed because that was the one that went for a touchdown. The Raiders are the only team in the NFL that uses the cover-0 defense, which puts eight men in the box and man coverage on the receivers. "Some teams will use the cover-0 as a gimmick defense on rare occasions, maybe to blitz. But nobody uses it as their standard defense like the Raiders do." The defense leaves the free safety, in this case Schweigert, very alone on a very big island. "When the runner gets to me, eight guys have already missed him. The highlight though would only show me. The disappointing thing is that I was held up to criticism and nobody defended me after everything I've done for the Raiders. I didn't miss any camps. I did everything they asked me to do, on the field and in the community." In the offseason, Oakland signed safety Gibril Wilson from the New York Giants, sending an even clearer signal that Oakland no longer had room for the 26-year-old safety. "I knew it was over at that point," Schweigert said. "With the big signing and with Michael Huff coming back, I knew they wouldn't keep me for a number of reasons, including financial ones." So now Schweigert gets to pick his team ... and money is not the determining factor. "I need to go to a team where I can compete for a starting position," Schweigert said. "I'll probably sign a one-year contract where I have the best opportunity to show I can play. After this year, then I'll hit the free-agent market." There are, however, other factors. "I'd like to move closer to home," said Schweigert, who is engaged to be married in June. "Now that I'm becoming a family man myself, I can see the importance of being closer to family. It wasn't the best situation for my family to come see me play, so in that respect I would like to move farther east. "But the first priority is to find the right opportunity." And for that, the Raiders did do Schweigert a favor by releasing him Tuesday. They could have released him once training camp started. "It allows me a chance to sign with a team, go to their mini-camps, work with the defense and learn everything before training camp starts," said the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Schweigert. "I'll be able to get ready so I'll have a real chance at a starting spot. "To me, it feels like starting over again. It feels like I'm starting fresh with a clean slate. "It's a good feeling."