It’s time. One could argue it’s past time. Nearing the end of his ninth season with the Raiders, Derek Carr has been benched in favor of backup Jarrett Stidham for the final two games of the season.
Head coach Josh McDaniels made the announcement Wednesday in the week following Derek Carr’s latest poor performance in what would be the Raiders fifth blown lead and second half collapse of the season. In addition, Carr and the Raiders have decided it best that he stay away for the final two weeks so as not to be a distraction.
Regardless of how you feel about McDaniels or where you choose to place the blame for the collapses this season, this was the right move. And it could very well mean the end for Derek Carr in a Raiders uniform.
Removing Carr from the lineup eliminates the possibility that he could be injured. An injury now would make it impossible to cut or trade him before his contract for next season becomes guaranteed on February 15. So, the Raiders are protecting their interests, which is smart.
That being said, you can think the Raiders are not in good hands with McDaniels *and* realize Derek Carr was not going to take this team where it needs to go. Both can be true. And for Carr, he’s had a lot more time to show us what he is and is not capable of accomplishing.
Nine years is a long time. Longer than even some successful NFL players’ careers. It’s an especially long time for a quarterback who has never been successful to continue to be handed the keys to a team as the starter.
Most NFL quarterbacks are not given nearly the opportunity Derek Carr has had to lead a single franchise to success despite never actually doing so.
What Derek Carr did was come into a franchise that had years of failed experiments at quarterback, desperate for some stability at the position and gave them that stability. In his third season in particular – the year he was playing for an extension – he had his best season. One that ended in Week 16 with him breaking his fibula; which only seemed to have fans wondering ‘what might have been’.
For that reason, he very much deserved his NFL record extension and a chance to see what he could do.
That 2016 season feels like legend at this point.
Carr never had that level of success again. He never reached the 28 touchdowns he did in 2016 again. He never had as few as the six interceptions he had that season. The Raiders never reached the 12 wins they reached that season again.
In 2021, just when the chatter started to surround whether it might be time to move on from Carr, he helped rally the Raiders late in the year to win their last four games and make the playoffs. But it didn’t go any farther. Carr appeared in his first ever playoff game and the team still made a first round exit.
After the season, the team overhauled the coaching staff and front office. New head coach Josh McDaniels hoped to see his offense hit the ground running in his first year with his new team by keeping Carr and adding Davante Adams to the mix.
While Adams has still been Adams, he too often hasn’t been put in the best position to show off his All Pro skills. As evidenced by this stat.
Derek Carr threw 72 incomplete passes targeting Davante Adams for #Raiders. That's the most incompletions from a QB to a receiver in a season since 2016 when Blake Bortles had 78 to Allen Robinson and Jameis Winston had 77 to Mike Evans
— Josh Dubow (@JoshDubowAP) December 28, 2022
Adams has been held below 30 yards receiving four times this season including each of the past two weeks. He had been held below 30 yards just twice in the previous five seasons combined in Green Bay.
For years now, fans – and apparently Raiders brass as well – have preferred sticking with Carr for fear that there is no obvious upgrade out there. What they fail to note is that most elite quarterbacks weren’t no-brainer options when they were acquired. They were all risks. But necessary ones that ultimately panned out. Many times after other failed experiments.
If Carr has proven anything it’s that he cannot take an underachieving team and make them into a contender. Instead what we get are the annual excuses that ‘if only Carr had a great offensive line or a great running attack or better weapons or a great defense.’
As if this is a problem unique to the Raiders. Few if any quarterbacks get all the stars to align. The great ones lift the whole team up to their level.
Carr is who he is. He is a fair to middling quarterback in this league. That much is well documented. He has few secrets left. While most of the rest of the teams have either a quarterback who has proven capable of putting the team on his back, or who is still young and developing.
The successful teams either develop a great quarterback or move on to the next quarterback long before nine seasons.
We came into this season saying Derek Carr has no excuses. And that’s still where we are. He has an All Pro wide receiver, a Pro Bowl slot receiver, a Pro Bowl tight end, the league’s leading rusher, and an offensive line that has played above expectations. The defense hasn’t been great, but you can’t blame them for these collapses when it’s the offense that is getting shut out in the second half.
Honestly, the excuses had all been exhausted long before this season. Not when you have to go back six years to find a time when Carr put this team on his back. The benefit of the doubt on that ended several years ago.
It’s time to let him go. If you can trade him, do so. If not, release him. Either way, move on. The unknown at this point is less of a risk than thinking Carr will suddenly be the difference between perennial underachieving and a playoff run.
