Derek Carr Can No Longer Play Like a Rookie Quarterback for the Oakland Raiders
Technically, Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr is a rookie, but he’s also the starting quarterback of an 0-4 team that is struggling offensively. Being a rookie second-round pick automatically made Carr the future, but when the Raiders decided to make him the starting quarterback this season, they were also saying they needed him to be the now.
It’s four games into Carr’s career and he can no longer act like a rookie, talk like a rookie or play like a rookie. A rookie quarterback is going to make mistakes that he must learn from, but the Raiders need to start seeing more growth and less pain in Carr’s play.
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The future could be now for Carr as his status as the quarterback of the future is far from assured after this season. No one is quite sure if general manager Reggie McKenzie will be around next season, so Carr has 12 games to prove that he’s going to be something in this league.
Interim head coach Tony Sparano is trying to turn a bad team around, and the quickest way to do that is with better quarterback play. Carr needs to start flashing the potential that we’ve only seen in spurts to give his coach a fighting chance.
The ugly truth is that Carr hasn’t been very good so far this season. That doesn’t mean he won’t eventually be good, but the start isn’t necessarily an encouraging one.
| Value | -6.9 | 4.51 | -19.10% | 47.9 |
| Rank | 29 of 35 | 29 of 34 | 29 of 34 | 27 of 34 |
| Value | 63.2 | 5.5 | 3.00% | 3.00% |
| Rank | 18 of 33 | 33 of 33 | 31 of 33 | 23 of 33 |
All the advanced stats agree that Carr is one of the worst three to five starting quarterbacks in the entire league right now. Few quarterbacks that have performed like Carr are still starting, but the Raiders are sticking with him.
“He’s getting better and better every week,” Sparano said earlier this week, via Raiders.com. “I think he learns well from his mistakes...So, he’ll continue to grow. He’s had some bumps along the way here, bumps in the road, and he learns from them.”
Roughly translated, the Raiders need Carr to get better every week, they need him to learn from his mistakes and they need him to grow. He’s had some bumps in the road, but that can’t continue if the Raiders are to be more successful going forward.
Here is what Sparano said he told Carr the day the Raiders named him interim head coach, via Raiders.com: "This is your football team, you’re the quarterback. We don’t have time for you to be a rookie right now. This team needs you to step up and be that leader. Don’t sit around and wait to do that."
The Raiders don’t have time for Carr to be a rookie. He has to step up and be a leader. Sparano knows that Carr can’t really do that if he’s not performing. What he’s really asking is for Carr to play better so he can demand better from those around him.
Supporting Cast
As much as Carr needs to improve his game, he also needs help. The Raiders are averaging just 3.4 yards per carry and a league-worst 61.5 rushing yards per game this season. Without an adequate running game, the Raiders have to ask Carr to do it all with his arm.
Oakland’s offensive line and running backs share the blame for the team’s lack of rushing success so far. The line is too often missing blocks. When they do manage to create a big running lane, the running backs aren’t getting the maximum number of yards available.
Here’s a good example of the line not getting the job done against the Miami Dolphins. Left guard Austin Howard pulled from left to right, and left tackle Donald Penn had to block down to create a running lane for running back Maurice Jones-Drew.
Penn wasn’t able to reach his block, so the defender forced Jones-Drew to bounce it outside where there was a linebacker waiting to tackle him. Howard helped block at the point of attack rather than get to the next level, which would have been fine if Penn had been able to make his block.
The result isn’t a negative run play, but it’s not a positive run play, either. A bit better execution blocking and the Raiders have a much-needed big gain on the ground.
When the offensive line does create running lanes, starting running back Darren McFadden isn’t getting all the yards available. Here’s an example against Miami where the offensive line creates a sizable hole, but McFadden bends his running path and dips his head, allowing the back-side defenders to make the tackle.
McFadden had the opportunity to take the play outside where it would have been just him against a defensive back. McFadden should see a defensive back as a player he can run over, but instead he only gained a handful of yards.
A little bit better execution in the running game from the offensive line and running backs could yield positive results for the Raiders. A better running game would take some of the pressure off Carr, as he wouldn’t have to throw nearly 40 times per game.
Carr Problems
Carr locks onto wide receivers, so he doesn’t always get through his reads. The problem compounds when he’s under pressure, partly because he’s also inconsistent stepping up in the pocket.
He doesn’t seem rattled by the pressure, per se; he is just reluctant to take sacks and often throws the ball when he runs out of time, regardless of how open his receiver may be. He is forcing passes, which has also been a precursor to his interceptions.
On a key 3rd-and-8 on the Raiders’ first offensive drive against Miami, Carr hit Vincent Brown for a gain of nine yards for a first down. It’s hard to argue with the result, but the decision to throw it to Brown instead of a wide open James Jones or Mychal Rivera was a risky one.
Carr was able to get away with locking onto Brown and throwing to his first read on this play, but he wasn’t always so lucky. Once defenses adjusted to Carr, they started getting better and better jumps on his passes.
Officials also called a penalty on Carr for intentional grounding because he tried to bail out of the pocket. Just a little more patience in the pocket would have helped him on this play. Had he kept his eyes down the field and stepped away from the pressure instead of trying to run away from it, he may have found his open receiver.
As it was, the Raiders had to keep both backs in to block because Carr has struggled to find his hot read when the defense brings two extra rushers from the same side. The Raiders were in max protect mode and as such didn’t have a hot read.
The culmination of these issues resulted in an interception for cornerback Brent Grimes in the third quarter. Carr was under duress, locked onto his man and threw an inaccurate pass with a defender at his feet.
Carr did manage to step up away from the pressure on the interception, but he forced the ball to the only receiver he looked at on the play. Jones was so open he could have turned an accurate pass into a very long gain, but Carr never looked his way.
The score was 24-7 at the time of this interception, but a play like this will also hurt the Raiders if they manage to keep the score close. Carr is still having some of the same issues he had Week 1, and until he fixes them, the Raiders will have to hide him with the running game to maximum their odds for success.
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