With the Las Vegas Raiders on pace to miss the playoffs after coming in with very high expectations, questions will surely surround the team about what changes they can make. As is often the case, the biggest one will surround the quarterback and the future of Derek Carr.
After an impressive season last year, Carr agreed to a three-year extension with the Raiders this offseason, seemingly cementing his spot with the franchise. But with Carr having just an average season so far, many fans have called for the Raiders to move on from him at the position.
This is not something Carr hasn’t heard before, and the nine-year veteran isn’t bothered by it one bit. Speaking to Tashan Reed of The Athletic, Carr said he doesn’t think about his future during the season, understanding that fans are always going to have these opinions:
“To be honest, during the season I don’t,” Carr said Wednesday. “I’ve always tried my best to — as I’ve gotten older in my career — just eliminate all of those things. … Whenever you have a bad stretch of games or a losing stretch of games or anything like that, that stuff’s going to happen. And so, for me, I don’t. I should’ve been traded for eight years now, you know? It is what it is. We have passionate fans; they’re passionate people that they just want to see us win. And so, when we don’t, obviously they get mad. And they think, ‘Oh, then we got to fix something,’ and stuff like that.
“And you can understand that as fans, but this is the most complex game in the world. So, sometimes you just got to understand our opinions really don’t matter. There’s facts that you’re trying to learn from Coach and we’re trying to do the systems right and you just try your best as an athlete just to keep your eye on what you’re supposed to do and what you can control. That’s how I’ve always been. So, as I’ve gotten older, it’s been, I would say definitely easier because once you’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a million times. I was supposed to be gone, like I said, eight years ago, and I’m still here.”
The reason these discussions are ringing loud at this time is the fact that the Raiders can easily get out from Carr’s recent contract extension this offseason and owe only $6 million of the $35 million cap hit Carr will command. With that being the case, it would make a lot of sense for the Raiders to consider the move, especially if they feel there are better options out there.
The question is what those options are and whether the Raiders can make them into a reality. While Carr has had his issues, he is far from the biggest problem on this Raiders team, but if they have their eye on one of the many quarterback options in the draft or a free agent possibility, Carr could find himself on the way out.
