Whether you care for Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr or not is irrelevant. Clearly, he’s head coach Jon Gruden’s ‘guy’ or else he’d be playing elsewhere, right? Nevertheless, his individual exploits continue to be overlooked each year. Most recently, Pro Football Focus decided Carr wasn’t worthy of a top ten ranking.
Carr’s no stranger to disrespect by fans, writers, and anyone familiar with the Silver and Black. On the other hand, he doesn’t help his case with past passive-aggressive social media posts. Yes, the media is often responsible for overanalyzing his posts but it seems Carr spends more time talking about winning than doing any of it. Oppositely, the Raiders have been marred by horrible defenses since Carr took over the starting job in his rookie year. Since then, it’s been a struggle to gain individual respect, which is understandable when you look at the team’s records. However, given his accomplishments on the field, would it not be fair to say Carr’s a top ten NFL quarterback?
The Raiders QB is seen as ‘upper’ middle-of-the-pack by PFF
PFF ranks all the current starting quarterbacks every offseason, this year, Carr was ranked as 13th in the NFL. They point out that Carr finished the 2020 season having accomplished some noteworthy feats. In particular, he earned the eighth-best passing grade and doubled his big-time throws from 2019. Also of note was the fact that Carr was behind that incredible win against the Kansas City Chiefs. Carr finished with 265 passing yards and had six explosive plays, which are measured as plays of more than 15 yards, in that contest.
Last season, Carr was tenth in completion percentage, 11th in passing yards, and had just as many passes thrown away as Patrick Mahomes, with 20. He finished the year with a 78.9 on-target percentage, slightly higher than Mahomes’ 76.9 in 2020. Nevertheless, success is ultimately measured by wins in the NFL. This is unfortunate since Carr doesn’t have too many of them. Luckily, it appears that the Raiders’ offense has the potential to do some damage this upcoming season. The run game got a major boost with Kenyan Drake’s signing, which will help Carr. The wide receiver corps, if healthy, has dangerous speed and is full of potential as they build rapport with Carr. Finally, the defense is now in good hands and if they can just be average, perhaps, Carr will finally start to see higher rankings once this team can return to playoff form.
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*Top Photo: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
