Oakland Raiders: Derek Carr must prove his worth in 2019
By Justin Fried
The Oakland Raiders front office proved their faith in Derek Carr as a franchise quarterback after not selecting a single QB in the 2019 NFL Draft. Now it’s up to Carr to prove them right.
Rumors swirled and meetings with top draft prospects were held but at the end of the day, the Oakland Raiders exited the 2019 NFL Draft with the exact same quarterback room that they had on Thursday. And for that reason, Derek Carr should be counting his blessings.
Despite the Raiders front office explicitly stating that Carr was “their franchise quarterback,” many draft analysts had the team selecting a quarterback early in the 2019 NFL Draft. At the very least, most assumed they would add one in the mid-to-late rounds if they didn’t address the position in the first round.
But here we sit now three days removed from the final night of the draft, and the Raiders have the same four quarterbacks under contract that they did prior to the draft.
Should this have been expected? Perhaps, if you wished to buy into the verbiage spewed by Mike Mayock and the remainder of the Raiders front office. That said, it certainly wasn’t outlandish to believe that the team could make a move.
Carr has steadily declined in overall production since his breakout 2016 campaign in which he led the Raiders to a magical 12-4 regular season record. Unfortunately, the Fresno State product broke his fibula in the team’s penultimate regular season game and the Raiders turned to rookie Connor Cook to start his first career game in the Wild Card round of the postseason.
We all know what happened next.
Since then, Carr and the Raiders simply haven’t looked the same. Now, it’s unfair to blame all of Carr’s struggled on just his play.
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The Raiders offensive line is a shell of what it once was with two rookie starters at offensive tackle in 2018. Gone were the likes of Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree who had been replaced with inferior talents such as Jordy Nelson and Martavis Bryant, Brandon LaFell……Marcell Ateman?
It’s fair to be concerned about Carr’s statistical dip in production, but it’s also fair to look at context. Carr posted just 19 touchdown passes in 2018, the fewest in his NFL career thus far. It was encouraging to see his completion percentage go way up, however, as he completed a career-high 68.9% of his passes, although that could also be a product of the Raiders 2018 offensive scheme.
It’s likely that this context is what convinced Mayock, Jon Gruden, and company to retain Carr and pass on drafting a quarterback. Or maybe it was simply because they didn’t see that value in selecting a quarterback in this year’s class.
But one thing is for sure, however. And that is that there can be no more excuses for Carr. Oakland completely revamped their offensive supporting cast in the 2019 offseason adding the likes of Antonio Brown and Tyrell Williams among others to the receiving core.
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The team also signed prized left tackle Trent Brown in free agency which should allow 2018 first-round pick Kolton Miller to move over to right tackle. They also added running back Josh Jacobs in the first round which should give Carr the most talented back he’s gotten to work with during his time in the NFL.
Simply put, there is no reason the Oakland Raiders offense shouldn’t succeed in 2019. And more so, there is no reason that Carr should continue to struggle.
If the Raiders underperform again and Carr fails to improve upon his previous two seasons, then it wouldn’t be surprising to see the team look to draft a quarterback come the 2020 NFL Draft. Top collegiate prospects such as Tua Tagovailoa, Jake Fromm, Justin Herbert, and Jacob Eason could all be on the Raiders radar in what is shaping up to be a very exciting quarterback class.
Next. Oakland Raiders: Instant grade and analysis of Josh Jacobs. dark
The 2019 season will be Carr’s final chance to prove to the Raiders that they were right to trust him. Prove to them that they were right to sign him to the massive five-year, $125 million contract extension back in 2017.
And prove to them that he is their franchise quarterback.