LAS VEGAS — Had the Raiders done an about-face at the end of last season and reached back out to Derek Carr to remain as their starting quarterback, Carr isn’t so sure he would have agreed to return.
As Carr told the Fresno Bee over the weekend, after the Raiders benched him over the last two games of the season, the emotions were so raw he might not have been in the right mental space to positively react to that olive branch.
Especially, as Carr put it, since the emotional toll extended to his family.
“Once they made my wife cry, that was pretty much over,” Carr told The Bee. “Once they made her cry, that was out.”
That said, his devotion to his fellow Raiders might have ultimately prevailed.
“But the love for my teammates is what probably would have made me do it,” he said. “But the way it worked out and the timing of things, I was just … it was time for me to move on. But who knows? You never know what will happen.”
It is a moot point, of course. The Raiders ultimately released Carr in February and he eventually signed with the Saints.
In just more than a month, Carr went from being the Raiders’ long-time quarterback to looking for his next landing spot. The manner in which it all went down, particularly getting benched, was a point of contention.
“I was, for lack of a better term, I was very upset; I was mad,” Carr said. “You spend nine years in a place. You have all the records and you can play at a high level and for something to get in the way, whether it was whatever reason, money related or whatever, injury-related, I would have said I don’t even want the money, just to play two more times in front of our fans. I didn’t get that opportunity. So it definitely lit a fire inside me to keep going.”
Carr’s benching occurred after a stretch of five games in which he threw nine interceptions and failed to complete better than 55% of his passes in four straight games.
And his 2022 season in totality represented a common theme of his nine years as the Raiders’ quarterback. He was once again learning a brand new offensive system — one of a handful he had to absorb during his time with the club,
The Raiders’ record with Carr under center was 63-79. He guided them to the playoffs two times in nine seasons and was 0-1 in the postseason.
Overall, the math didn’t quite add up. And while there are plenty of places to turn to assess blame for the lack of success, Carr understands losing too many football games ends up costing people jobs. The quarterback included.
“If you win more games and you keep being productive, you stay there forever,” Carr said. “But we didn’t win enough games and that’s the kind of stuff that happens with all the turnover of coaches; with all the different things. Eventually, the last guy in the room is usually going to be out at some point. And that’s really what happened.
“I’ve survived about 20 coaches and that’s how it goes and it is what it is.”
Carr said he’s happy now to be with the Saints, “a stable organization that’s been proven for years, and I hope that the Raiders find something good there too, where they can keep that stability for the next guys because I know how important it is and I care about my old teammates.
“But for the time being, I’m just excited to be a part of the Saints organization because they’ve won at a high level for a long time.”
