Getty Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr.
The Las Vegas Raiders have come undone since the bye week as they’ve lost three straight games. In those three losses, the offense hasn’t scored more than 16 points once. The defense still isn’t great but it’s doing the best it can and is getting close to no help from the offense. Regardless of why the Raiders are losing, it appears the team is set to have another late-season collapse that ends without a playoff berth.
Quarterback Derek Carr certainly isn’t the only problem on offense but he’s been playing some of his worst football lately. He only has one more season left on his contract and his recent play won’t have the Raiders jumping at the chance to extend him. He knows he hasn’t been playing well enough and the frustration is starting to show. After Sunday’s 32-13 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Carr got blunt about the state of the Raiders franchise.
“I’ve been a Raider fan for a long time and 20 years of this crap is enough. I’m fed up.” Carr said. “No one is coming to save us, so we better figure it out.”
Carr has spent eight years with the team trying to turn things around. He’d be devastated if he wasn’t part of the eventual turnaround.
“I just want to be part of the moment it changes,” Carr said. “I want that so bad. That’s what keeps driving me. I get pissed off and upset and stand up here, and I’ve done this way too many times … It shouldn’t always end like this crap.”
The Raiders have only been to the playoffs once since 2002. Carr was part of that playoff team in 2016 but was injured during the regular season. Outside of that one season, the team has been far removed from playoff contention for close to 20 years.
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Carr Takes Blame for Offensive Struggles
GettyDerek Carr & Marcus Mariota of the Las Vegas Raiders.
Just a few weeks ago, Carr was coming off a historic performance against the Philadelphia Eagles where he became the first quarterback in NFL history to complete at least 90% of his passes on 30+ throws twice. The Raiders were 5-2 and he was starting to become an interesting candidate to win MVP. A month later and fans are ready to see Carr benched and the offense is in free fall.
He believes that the offensive issues are due to his play.
“We’re out of sync,” Carr said. “We’re not doing good enough on third down, we’re not doing good enough in the red zone. It’s my fault.”
There are many issues facing the Raiders offense and Carr isn’t the only one to blame. However, he’s not doing enough to elevate the talent around him.
Would Raiders Bench Carr?
A backup quarterback is always going to be popular on a struggling team, especially when your backup quarterback is Marcus Mariota. The former Heisman Trophy winner and No. 2 overall draft pick has a completely different skill set than Carr and could give a jolt of life into the Raiders offense.
However, the team isn’t going to bench Carr. Mariota got benched for poor play the last time he was a starter and there’s no reason to believe he’s much better now. The Raiders are headed towards making major changes this offseason and that’s when they’ll decide what to do with Carr. He may not be the starting quarterback of the future but he will be for the rest of this season.
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