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Coming off arguably the best season of his career, it looked like Derek Carr was safe. However, Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson started getting mentioned in trade talk and the Las Vegas Raiders were instantly linked to them. It’s not clear if the silver and black have any interest in trading for a superstar quarterback but that hasn’t stopped many from speculating.
Players on the Raiders have heard the noise and while some may have hinted that they liked the idea of Watson joining the team, fullback Alec Ingold came to his quarterback’s defense.
“When you have a quarterback like Derek and a leader like Derek and a guy that puts us in the right situation to win ballgames like Derek does, it’s tough to keep reading about how he’s on the way out and how someone else is coming in,” Ingold told Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Look, Derek is going to be the first guy to say he doesn’t listen to it. He doesn’t buy into it. And in the business of football, he’s going to give all the right answers and be polite and everything. But as his teammate, that guy does pretty much everything right and he still gets hated by some people in spite of that. And that’s tough.”
For whatever reasons, Carr has drawn the ire of many fans and members of the media. It’s bizarre considering he’s not very controversial. Regardless of what people on the outside say, it sounds like he has the support of his team and teammates.
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Ingold ‘Bothered’ by Carr Hate
Ingold is only 24-years-old but he’s clearly got things figured out. Last offseason, multiple Raiders players suggested that they’d be happy if the team signed Tom Brady. It’s okay to say that if your team doesn’t have a clear starting quarterback on the roster. It’s also okay to think that, but making comments to the media isn’t wise and Ingold gets that. He’s tired of the way his quarterback is getting treated.
“It’s the general belief that Derek Carr isn’t the guy,” Ingold said. “That doesn’t make sense to me. I just don’t understand it. Because he is the guy. In our locker room, there is a sense of pride that we have our guy and we’re gonna ride with our guy.
“That is what bothers me more than anything. I can’t understand how anybody isn’t ecstatic to have this guy as the quarterback. By the way he plays. By the way he competes. By the way he leads. There is a sense of confidence around here that Derek Carr is our quarterback.”
Ingold Believes Carr Can Take Raiders to Super Bowl
Carr isn’t the best quarterback in the NFL but he’s arguably among the 10 best. That means that around 20 teams have a worse quarterback situation than the Raiders do. The league’s best quarterbacks don’t always win Super Bowls. Russell Wilson only has one, Patrick Mahomes has one, Aaron Rodgers only has one and Deshaun Watson doesn’t have any. Ingold believes that Carr is good enough to get the silver and black another Lombardi Trophy.
“I remember my first season, Derek came and spoke to all the rookies, and all he talked about was the singular goal of making the Super Bowl,” Ingold said. “That was my first impression of Derek Carr. From that day moving forward, that is all I’ve seen from him in how he works and how he plays and how he performs.
“That’s his mentality and that’s all he cares about. And I think that same mentality runs throughout this locker room. Not just in the belief we have in Derek, but the confidence that we are a lot closer than people realize. The bottom line is, I believe Derek can take this team and this organization to a Super Bowl.”
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