These are always a nice reference tool. We’ve got Derek Carr’s first passing chart from NFL Next Gen Stats as a member of the New Orleans Saints, which gives us a great look at where Carr had the most success targeting different areas of the field against the Tennessee Titans defense on Sunday.
Buy Saints TicketsWe can see that most of Carr’s incompletions happened at the middling distance — including his interception. Of his 10 incomplete passes, four of them occurred when he was targeting 10 to 20 yards downfield. Carr consistently hit his layups within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. And he connected on half of his shots 20 or more yards past the line of scrimmage, which compares well to other veteran quarterbacks around the league.
If Carr can smooth out the miscommunications and off-target throws attacking the middling range, he’ll be a real problem for opposing defenses. He has several run-after-catch threats at his disposal like Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed, and Juwan Johnson. Hitting them in stride and giving them a chance to make a move in space presents more big-play potential to tap into. We’ll check back next week and throughout the season to see how Carr’s trends develop.
