New York ? Casual fans didn’t discover JaMarcus Russell until the Sugar Bowl last January. Neither, apparently, did some NFL scouts – not to the extent that they’re on to him now as the likely No. 1 pick in Saturday’s draft.

In those three-plus hours, Russell’s 332 yards and two touchdown passes carried LSU to a 41-14 win over Notre Dame. That performance helped propel him to the top of the 2007 NFL draft class over the presumptive heir to that spot, Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn. Never mind that LSU was simply the better team, Quinn’s 15-of-35 for 148 yards with two interceptions put a huge question mark after his name.

So the top of the NFL draft is about the two quarterbacks, notwithstanding the fact Georgia Tech’s Calvin Johnson is conceded to be the one “can’t miss” player – perhaps the best at any position in the last five years or so.

But in the endless analysis that starts in early January and carries on for four months, Quinn’s “can he or can’t he” status has been the focus, despite the fact he had a far more consistent college career than Russell. Suddenly he became a “can’t win the big one” QB, a label that also was applied in college (and for a while in the NFL) to Peyton Manning.

So if the Raiders don’t grab Johnson or trade down to someone who wants him, they are likely to take the 6-foot-5, 260 pound-Russell. Al Davis has always coveted quarterbacks like him who can throw the ball 40-50-60 yards in the air, as he can.

Quinn might go second, third … or 10th, as Matt Leinart, who spent almost two years at Southern Cal fighting the burden of being a potential No. 1 did a year ago. Such a drop could cost Quinn a lot of money.

“I don’t care about money, I care about football,” Quinn said Thursday at a media session in New York for potential top picks. “Look at it this way: the lower I go, the better chance I have a chance of playing for a winning team.”