With a lot of help from a finally competent defense, Derek Carr has the Raiders out to a 3-0 start – best start of his career 8-year NFL career.
In a lot of ways, Carr is playing at the same high level that he always has, but one trademark statistic of Carr’s career has changed a lot over the last few years of his development under Jon Gruden.
Back in 2017, Carr started out the season with an average time from snap to pass attempt at 1.91 seconds – faster than any quarterback in the previous six seasons. That number jumped to 2.4 seconds by the end of the 2017 season where Carr where Carr ranked among the top of the league in terms of delivering the ball quickly (tied for no. 2 with Eli Manning). In 2018, Carr led the league (tied with Ben Roethlisberger) with a 2.45 second average time from snap to release.
But over the last 3 years with Gruden, Carr has stood in the pocket longer than at any point in his career. According to Pro Football Focus analytics, Carr is delivering passes at an average of 2.63 seconds after the snap. There are 22 quarterbacks getting rid of the football faster this year.
One of the clearest signs that the Raiders’ offense is benefitting from Carr’s patience in the pocket is the uptick in throws downfield. Carr’s average pass attempt is traveling 9.2 yards this season. Just two years ago (2019), his average depth of target was 6.6 yards.
This year, some expected the Raiders offense to get off to a slow start in the passing game with two second-year receivers taking over starting roles, but Henry Ruggs and Bryan Edwards have embraced their full-time roles and both are on pace for 1,00-yard seasons. It’s still early in the year, but Ruggs is on pace for 1,343 receiving yards and Edwards is one pace for 1,190 receiving yards.
And the benefit of Carr waiting longer for plays to develop has clearly opened up more plays downfield…
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