Factoring in Las Vegas and the organizational need to move into their new market with as much momentum as possible, there has probably never been a more important offseason than what is facing the Raiders.
The Raiders are equipped with fours picks in the top 35 of the draft and have a mountain of salary cap room beyond their draft assets. Nevertheless, the headliner story over the past few weeks has been about Derek Carr and his standing on the roster. Is he the quarterback of the future or will Jon Gruden ship Carr out the way he did Khalil Mack?
Here are some thoughts and things the Raiders will need to consider before getting too restless with Carr as quarterback.
– Believe what you will, but the Raiders grand scheme was not to trade Mack a week before the 2018 season. It wasn’t well planned and the public relations hit was even more than what the team expected. Do the Raiders really want to stroll into Las Vegas after trading the only other nationally recognizable face on the roster? That would be a colossal risk not only on the field, but also on the business side of the operation.
– Everyone is talking about the rookies and the potential for Gruden becoming enamored with a young quarterback, but the more likely scenario would be Gruden getting blindsided with a big offer for Carr, taking the deal, and deciding to pay a veteran free agent like Nick Foles. General manager Mike Mayock might sign off (not that Gruden would need him to) because he’d have the opportunity then to be looking for the quarterback of the future over the next 3-4 years.
– What quarterback, veteran or rookie, would have come in and excelled with the roster the Raiders put on the field last year? Two rookie tackles (neither played particularly well) and the least dynamic receiver group in the league. The fact that Carr finished with a 93.9 quarterback rating with an underwhelming supporting cast was impressive – especially considering Tom Brady, Dak Prescott, and Ben Roethlisberger all finished with ratings under 98. And by the way, Brady, Prescott, and Roethlisberger had three of the best offensive lines in football this year.
– Gruden said Carr was one of the big reasons he took the Raiders job. Gruden also said he will have failed if he couldn’t get the job done with Carr. It’s no secret that coach and quarterback have been attached at the hip over the past year and if Gruden decides to cut bait with Carr after one year, what message will that send to a team that is already short on leaders in the locker room? Players pay attention. If Gruden can’t get it done with Carr, why would the players have confidence Gruden can get it done with someone else?
– Shouldn’t Gruden want to see what the offense can in year two with Carr? Remember, Rich Gannon wasn’t great in his first year with Gruden. Gannon had a quarterback rating of 86.5 in 1999, but his rating improved each year until he named league MVP in 2002. Why not build the offensive line around Carr and give him a few playmakers… and then decide what his trade value might be.
– Dumping Carr now would set the Raiders’ offense back at least another year. Does owner Mark Davis really want to enter his first season in Vegas with a quarterback coming off a bumpy first year in Gruden’s complicated offense? Gruden has a 10-year contract but he doesn’t have a free meal ticket to finish third in the AFC West three consecutive years. Mark Davis is patient, but he might not be that patient, especially if the new stadium starts having empty seats on Sundays.
– If Gruden is really sold on Carr, why doesn’t he more emphatically deny trade rumors? Sure, he may have given Carr assurances in private, but why not squash the theories with a strong statement at some point so everyone involved doesn’t have to constantly hear about it? If nothing else, a statement like that would tell teams that they have to give up even more to pry Carr away from the Raiders.
– A recent mock draft connected Kyler Murray to the Raiders. Would the Raiders really gamble away the next 3-4 years on player that could at any time switch over to a potentially more lucrative baseball career?
If the Raiders do decide to go after a college quarterback, the time to do it is probably in another year. But if course the only way to get a big-name quarterback in those drafts will come by tanking away another year or two – which is something the owner surely won’t be willing to sign off on again.
twitter: @raidersbeat
“which is something the owner surely won’t be willing to sign off on again.”
Really? Is anyone sure about that? Mark and John have so far traded Mack, Cooper, Crabtree, and set the Team back years. So much for growing your own talent. I believe this organization is capable of anything and Raider Nation knows it. Frankly, Carr deserves better and like all the other “cast offs” when he’s traded he’ll excel with a new team and make the organization look foolish again. It saddens me to see our team sink so far when it felt as if the future was within our grasp. I hope the franchise gets sold after moving to Vegas. May Al RIP, his son doesn’t have the savvy daddy did back in the day.
Look, I’m not “over-whelmed” by what Mark has done either, but let’s not forget that Daddy-Al, made the Raiders, questionable at-best, since the early 90’s. In fact, since the early 90’s, pretty much the lone good thing that he did, was hire Gruden in ’98, then, of course, he screwed that up, by trading Gruden away, when Gruden wanted to get paid accordingly, from rescuing the franchise. Remember the wasteland that was the Raiders, after the team that Gruden built, was dismantled, after the 2002 Super Bowl. Al was a derserving a HOF’er, for what he did with the Raiders from the 60’s through the mid-80’s, but let’s face it, he definitely would not have been a HOF-er, if you look at his resume, after their last winning SB in ’83.
I agree that Mark Davis is a retard n has no clue about football or business 4 that matter. I also agree Carr deserves better but ur placing Cooper n Crabtree in as cast-offs n setting team back years is ridiculous. Crabtree is weak n Cooper has been anything but a 1 or 2 receiver both dropping passes like its the thing 2 do n Raiders should have got rid of them while ago. Mack should b here still n any reason they give is straight retarded n senseless
The owner will sign off on what ever he’s told to sign off on by JG.
I agree with pretty much everything you write here. Having said that, it occurs to me that Bosa, J. Allen, and Q. Williams could all be gone by the time the Raiders pick, which would be bad. If people think the Raiders just might be crazy enough to draft Murray, than perhaps a team like the Giants trades up to get ahead of them, dropping one of the top three defensive players into their laps. Makes sense to me.
Gruden has to show interest in the college QBs in order to get someone to trade in above him and push one of the three elite defenders down to us at pick 4. Carr ain’t going anywhere.