Soon, we will need to change our article tags to ‘Las Vegas Raiders’. For now, Derek Carr talked about moving on from a 2019 that finished with a strange few weeks.
Remember – in the final game in the Oakland Coliseum – Carr was booed off the field. Next was reports that Jon Gruden could really take Carr or leave him, with the word ‘disconnect’ being used. All of this had the quarterback addressing things after an end of the year meeting with his coaches. Notably, Carr threw for a season-high 391 yards at Denver on Sunday without an interception in a 16-15 Denver win.
"I had some good meetings with my coaches, and I'm looking forward to Las Vegas…we need to get more wins and I think everyone will chill out." – #Raiders QB Derek Carr, with @_willcompton reminding him of another meeting. pic.twitter.com/LUjgvT0NLI
— Paul Gutierrez (@PGutierrezESPN) December 30, 2019
Here is what Carr had to say, as he spoke of the move to Las Vegas as a breath of fresh air.
“I had some good meetings with my coaches, and I’m looking forward to Las Vegas.”
Then, Jon Gruden spoke as if he was alright with Carr’s 2019 performance.
“He played good,” Gruden said Monday in his season-ending media conference. “I’m not going to get into all the next-year scenarios. I’m just going to say that 7-9 is a step forward and we took a step forward. Statistically I think we took a step forward. We’ve got to get a lot of guys healthy and we’ve got a lot of things to look at and evaluate before we start making any assumptions.”
The head coach affectionately known as ‘Chucky’ continued.
“Earlier, he played more of a role as coach on the field, with all the change that we had around him. We had different receivers almost every week. Different tight ends, different backs, different linemen, and I think his patience and his ability to coach guys in practice and on the grass on gameday was a real area of improvement. He did some good things, no doubt.”
Look, Carr had a good season and his numbers support that. I can’t remember a quarterback posting a 100-plus rating, 4,000 yards, and a 70.4 completion percentage and having the organization talking about dumping him.
This is why the Raiders are constantly in disarray and Carr has a right to be wondering why he’s not going to be selected to the Pro Bowl with numbers like this. A lot of guys didn’t make enough plays. However, Carr wasn’t one of those guys.
Jon Gruden needs to check his ego and spend the energy building other areas of his football team. Maybe if he does, the Raiders sneak into the playoffs their first year in Las Vegas. With a 7-9 finish in 2019, that will be the expectation one year from now.
