It’s way too early to write off the Oakland Raiders. But it isn’t too soon to wonder in print if Rich Gannon has gone Kurt Warner.

Like St. Louis quarterback Warner, Gannon has lost his nerve, confidence, velocity, accuracy and agility. He has turned into a standing duck more concerned with duck-and-cover than finding the uncovered receiver. Unlike Warner, Gannon is very close to losing his teammates because he’s such a finger-pointing hothead prone to losing his on-field cool.

No matter how shockingly inept Warner became, he could always fall back on the good will he built in the locker room. Not Gannon, who has this in common with the 49ers’ Terrell Owens: He sets himself above and apart from the team, he’s quick to criticize teammates or coaches, and he will never, ever publicly acknowledge that he stunk.

This approach works as long as you’re living up to your reputation as the NFL’s most dangerous receiver (Owens) or last season’s NFL MVP (Gannon). If you’re circus-catching every ball thrown your way or shrugging off rushers and making throws like one-man gang Steve McNair, you can point more fingers than Uncle Sam.

But on a Monday night in Denver when “Glitch” Gannon should have been apologizing to teammates and fans, he was caught on national TV throwing one of his typical fits at offensive coordinator Marc Trestman. Not a pretty sight. Neither is Gannon’s offense, which is by far the NFL’s worst on third-down conversions at 18.9 percent — seven of 37.

That’s partly because he doesn’t have injured wide receiver Jerry Porter, who was emerging as the Raiders’ T.O. And partly because Tim Brown looks as if he no longer can outrun Al Davis. And partly because the pass protection hasn’t been the same since Pro Bowl center Barret Robbins crashed psychologically and physically.

But most of all, the offensive drop-off has occurred because Gannon got knocked off his high horse by Tampa Bay in a five-interception Super Bowl and hasn’t recovered. Not once since beating McNair’s Tennessee Titans, 41-24, for the AFC title has Gannon given his team much reason to feel good about him or itself. Not once in four exhibitions and three real games.

The book on Gannon: Sack him early and he unravels. The Broncos blind-sided him on Monday night’s first play. Presto: Kurt Warner. Gannon looks like a 37-year-old who has taken too many hits and lost his stomach for fighting off rushers and scrambling for an occasional first down. His arm looks sore and his brain fried.

Gannon is dragging down a pretty good football team. No, the defense isn’t great, but it isn’t bad, and it eventually could be as good as last year’s. And, yes, Bill Romanowski’s punch-out of backup tight end Marcus Williams and kicker Sebastian Janikowski’s latest brush with the law drive Gannon almost as crazy as the team’s league-leading 36 penalties.

But the Raiders don’t have a 1A quarterback like the Rams’ Marc Bulger.