Richard Todd anyone? 1984?
A few commonalities are 1) that both men came in from AFC teams who made the playoffs a few times with them under center but didn’t win very many of them and 2) both were/are considered hot-and-cold QBs over their careers.
Well, both Todd and Carr's previous teams both made the post-season twice with Todd's Jets making the playoffs in 1981 and 82 (although Jets did have a bit of a magical mini-run to the AFCCG in strike-shortened 1982 season, upsetting L.A. Raiders, 17-14, in the Divisional Round and Todd arguably singlehandedly put Miami in the first SB since 1973 when he threw 4-5 INTs, 3 of which were interrupted by Dolphins' LB A.J. Duhe, its been speculated for the longest time amongst Jets fans that Don Shula, Joe Robbie, and Miami's FO purposely allowed the field-tarps to not cover Orange Bowl the next before the game when a huge severe thunderstorm hit Miami-Dade County and longtime South Florida residents will tell you that in the winter months, there can be a lot of severe thunderstorms that can make a very successful heavy-running attack like 82 Jets had kind of neutralized on a muddy, slick grass stadium and old Orange Bowl was very difficult for both pro and collegiate road teams in both hot and extremely wet weather. Richard Todd was drafted in mid-70's to be essentially the second-coming of Joe Namath and besides the Alabama backgrounds, his career was mostly a disappointment. Living here in Mobile, Ive talked to some of Todd's former HS and college teammates and most of them have said, his biggest weakness was his inability to stay focused despite being hit or sacked a lot, i.e. his mental fragility. It was no secret amongst NFL defenses during his career that you rattled a QB like Todd hard and early, he might settle down but his confidence never fully returned in-game. A similar sentiment was made towards fellow Alabama QB alum Scott Hunter during his pro career.
Carr strikes me as being a bit mentally tougher and IMHO, if he'd been our starting QB maybe with our very good 2018-2020 squads, he would've lit up the score-board and won 11-12 games as Brees' did, but he only looks good if he has great supporting casts, he's not like Brees, or Mahomes now where his FO likes to periodically fork with his great offensive supporting casts and trade away good role players, draft and assume _______ new WR's and RB's will replace or be 60% as good as Colston, Sproles, Moore, to some extent Robert Meachem, Stills because hey, our FO believed Drew could make anybody kook good even if his defenses were sheetty or barely-average.
Carr can't do that but DA assumed after almost a decade that he could, Carr had some great statistical seasons in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021, during that time span, their were a couple of games in each of those seasons that Raiders were winning in the 4th quarter but lost. In 2020, they lost two close home games in Las Vegas (LAC, MIA) that they had leads in and probably should've won, but blew it late or in OT (LAC), Carr had only two winning seasons as Raiders QB and because he suffered an ACL injury in a meaningless late 2016 regular-season game, Oakland sort of limped into WC vs. Texans and got their arses kicked but if one checks the final scores of all Raiders games from 2017-2020, he likely should've more but HC or OC ineptness, or defensive lapses lost Raiders games they should've won.
Oakland/L.A. Raiders franchise reputation or penchant over the past 20 years since losing self-destructing before Super Bowl XXXVII, and Bill Callaghan helping to send All-Pro C Barrett Robbins off the railings to Mexico because he literally changed the team's offensive gameplan night before, has been showcased by an inability to win close games. Which is ironic because the Raiders forebears of the 70's, 80's and early 90's were noted for doing the exact opposite: winning close, contested games. For over 50 years, Raiders were the all-time winniest AFL/NFL franchise in history, from 1963-1981, they didn't have one losing season, and rarely missed the post-season. The only other NFL teams that come close to that same sort of excellence was Dallas and Minnesota from late 60's-early 80's. I think the first long nail in Al Davis and Raiders collective coffins' was after the 1986 season, for the next 6 years, Davis started having this excessive, unnecessary ego trip by demoting and punishing All-Pro players like Marcus Allen and then, Tim Brown. I still to this day don't know WTF Davis issues were with Allen and if he really hated him that much during late 80's, trade Marcus, Al, don't sit on him. I've heard some "juicy gossip" rumors surrounding O.J. and Marcus getting too close and Al disliking it, and well, other things regarding maybe marital infedility perhaps involving Allen and Nicole Brown Simpson,
Then there's Tim Brown and the fact that according to Brown, Al Davis used racial slurs towards him and in his presence multiple times, some of these occasions have been confirmed by former Raiders GM and Packers executive Ron Wolf. Ive never forgiven much less understood Davis' resentment towards Brown, the man was almost a saint off-the-field and did so much great community work in L.A. and in East Bay/ Oakland region, one of the most intelligent, knowledgable, smartest players ever to be involved in this game.