Kay Adams: Did Saints QB Derek Carr Figure it out at the End of Last Season?

Joodas Avila said
Brutal truth. NO…EVERY YEAR of his Raider career was exactly what we’ve seen from Carr. Only difference is we’ve only been privy to his fools gold style of play for a single season. Ask any TRUE Raider fan. Im in CA, & its all about the 9ers, Raiders, Rams & Chargers, in that order.

From the peeps i work & train with, they laughed at my excitement when we landed Carr. “He’ll break your heart”. “Dude is a rollercoaster”. “Carr gets coaches fired”. “He’s your guy’s mess now”. “Told you…Carr SUCKS”. Those are things i readily hear & have consistently heard since we’ve signed Carr.

I “hope” this new offensive staff can debunk 10years of proof that Carr is a mediocre QB at best. I hope he plays like the guy who ended the year. But then again, thats what Raider fans all sounded like year after disappointing year when Carr was their guy. Not trying to hate, but that’s exact insight ive heard from the die hard Raiders that i know. & what’s more, that’s exactly what im seeing from Carr. I have hope, but very, VERY, little confidence is Carr, sorry.

I think that's a bit over done and a bit of sour grapes from Raiders fans. Fans always overreact based on emotion and seldom know the true issues or causes for things.

Carr isn't amazing, but he's been at good starting QB for most of his career. He's not a guy who is going to consistently win games for you, and he might lose some for you on a bad day, but he's overall probably around the #10 QB on average per year. Sometimes a bit worse, sometimes a bit better. The last 5 or so games last year show what he is capable of and what he has done on occasion in his career. Problem is that he has those 5 or so great games, 5 to 8 mediocre games, and a few bad games every year. So, it seems unlikely he can hold that level over an entire season. At his age most guys are what they are.

There were times last year, even early in the season, that he won some games with big deep throws late in games. But, he also helped to get them into a position where they had to make that throw. His biggest issues have been lack of consistency and he's never been great in the red zone.

So, Carr may be what he is, but it's possible that the new system will help his consistency and if the new system brings the running game that it should bring, it will be a huge help and take the pressure off of Carr in the red zone by allowing the team to rely more on the running game and allowing Carr to use more play action in the red zone.

But honestly, if the defense can find any pass rush and clean up some of the run defense issues, all this team really needs is a better than average starting QB to win 9 or 10 games. Beyond that will depend on how good the pass rush is and if Carr can elevate his game in the new offense.