Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr’s career has been filled with ups and downs, going from high of an MVP-caliber season in 2016 before breaking his leg, to low of three straight losing seasons since.
The 2019 season was arguably Carr’s best from a statistical standpoint as he posting career-highs in passing yards (4,054), completion percentage (70.4) and quarterback rating (100.8).
The Raiders finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs once again though, leading to him taking a majority of the criticism this offseason.
One thing about Carr though is that when he receives criticism, he has always taken it on the chin and remained respectful. The same can be said for former No. 2 overall pick Marcus Mariota, who is a close friend of Carr’s and now his backup after signing with the Raiders in the offseason.
In an interview with Vic Tafur of The Athletic, Carr proclaimed that the politically correct version of himself is no more:
“Oh, yeah, we are too nice, very politically correct. All those kinds of things … but I’m done with the politically correct stuff. I guess I’m getting a little old and grumpy.
It’s a new me. (Laughs) I joked about it the other day, being politically correct only got me six MVP votes (in 2016) so I am done with that. I’m not doing that anymore. We both are just who we are, you know, to be honest, like, we are gonna be nice. We’re gonna be genuine.”
Carr also added that he no longer will be paying attention to the hate he gets on social media:
“If anyone is negative to me now on Twitter, I block them out of my life. If you have something like that to say to me, I have no time for you. And what people get misunderstood is that they will then say that I can’t take the criticism. But it has nothing to do with that. I have one goal and that is to win the Raiders a championship, multiple championships and your negativity isn’t helping me. I don’t want to waste one second on that negativity when I am trying to win a Super Bowl, if that makes sense. …
As a team, as a quarterback, we just need to score more points and win more games. That’s the message this year. Whatever it takes. We just need to score more and win more. That’s my mindset. I don’t care about anything else.”
It is good to see that Carr is entering the 2020 season with a bit of chip on his shoulder as he looks to get the Raiders back to the playoffs.
One of the team’s biggest problems in 2019 was a lack of weapons for Carr. They addressed that by selecting two wide receivers in the 2020 NFL Draft, including Henry Ruggs III at No. 12 overall, so that should give him everything he needs to be successful this upcoming season.
