Josh Jacobs Says Derek Carr Benching Was 'Definitely Weird' for Raiders Locker Room

Having a quarterback change in the middle of the season is never a comfortable process.

Las Vegas Raiders' star running back Josh Jacobs learned that firsthand this season after long-time starter Derek Carr was benched in December after the team was knocked out of playoff contention.

Carr ended up having to watch from the bench as Jarrett Stidham stepped in admirably over the last two games of the season.

While on PFT Live on Thursday with Mike Florio and Chris Simms, he described the strange feeling in the locker room while dealing with the quarterback situation.

"It was definitely weird, man," Jacobs said. "Just like, you can kind of see the signs that something was going to happen. The season we were having — we lost that last game [to the Steelers] where we knew we weren't going to go to the playoffs because we had to win out. We knew that our playoff hopes were over.

"So we already kind of knew that they were about to shake some stuff up because they didn't have anything to lose at that point. But we didn't know it was going to be like that."

Carr had been with the Raiders for nine seasons, making four Pro Bowls during his time with the team, including in 2022 due to other players' injuries. However, he struggled this past season throwing 14 interceptions, tied for third in the league.

He threw three picks in his final start of the year, a 13-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

While he's still technically with the organization, Carr is expected to be released soon as his $40.4 million in guarantees is set to kick in next week.

Luckily for Carr, there are several teams around the league that can use his services next season.

As for Jacobs, also a pending free agent, he earned the inaugural Jim Brown Award for having the most rush yards in a season and was named the FedEx Ground Player of the Year.