Quarterback rumors have been swirling around the Raiders all week and on Sunday another story surfaced indicating that Jon Gruden may spend the offseason looking for someone to replace Derek Carr.
“Gruden and Carr have a solid relationship, the sources said, but there are concerns about not extending plays with the legs when possible, and Oakland has also struggled to push the ball downfield,” CBS Sports insider Jason La Canfora reported on Sunday. “Carr has been quite accurate — completing 70 percent of his passes — but the bulk of the work goes to tight ends and running backs, and he isn’t by nature a gunslinger or a big-time playmaker; those characteristics resonate heavily with Gruden.”
The report also said that Gruden doesn’t see enough “high-end upside” in Carr and the Raiders head coach will explore quarterback options in the 2020 draft.
It will be interesting to see how the offseason plays out because Gruden has taken every opportunity to defend Carr playing through difficult circumstances this year (i.e. injuries, Antonio Brown, etc.). Could it be that Gruden believes Carr is responsible for more of the team’s offensive struggles than he has been letting on?
Time will tell, but after being booed (and beer bathed) out of the Oakland Coliseum a week ago, Carr will get a new home crowd next year one way or another.
As of the end of the early games on Sunday, the Raiders are actually still alive in the playoff race. Of course, they actually have to win a couple of games of their own to pull it off, but as of now the season isn’t quite dead yet.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Carr sure looked good today.
The crack head pipe dream that Gruden will devolp is a joke.. ALL of his success has been with veteran QBs.. The only people surprisingly who wanna get rid of Carr is the media.. Def ain’t the majority of the fans… Raiders do have no receivers or D… So no rookie gonna win here… Ud be a fool to think that.. Especially with no can’t miss prospects at QB in this yrs draft.. No way!!!
I like Derek but I think it’s finally time to move on from him. I think the only way he can take this team to the Super Bowl is if he has tremendous talent all around him and a much better defense. He doesn’t seem to be able to lead the team to victory very often during the close games or blow anyone out, even when the Raiders are playing teams with losing records or who are struggling. The great QB’s do that, even when they have key injuries on the team.
To me it seems like Carr is like a scared little girl afraid to get hit always checking it down and looking to get rid of the ball.