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There was a time when Derek Carr thought he was going to spend his entire career with the Las Vegas Raiders. During a June 15, 2021, press conference, he said that he would “probably quit football” if he had to play anywhere else. However, things changed after Carr was benched following a Week 16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers last season.
The quarterback was not with the team for the final two games of the season and was eventually released when the offseason arrived. He ended up signing with the New Orleans Saints and has moved on from the Raiders. That doesn’t mean that it didn’t sting to leave the team that he thought he was going to spend his career with. Carr has avoided getting too specific about where things went wrong with the Raiders last season, but he’s starting open up. In a June 26 interview with the Fresno Bee, the quarterback opened up about how he felt following his benching.
“I was, for lack of a better term, I was very upset; I was mad,” Carr said. “You spend nine years in a place, you have all the records and you can play at a high level and for something to get in the way, whether it was whatever reason, money related or whatever, injury related, I would have said I don’t even want the money, just to play two more times in front of our fans. I didn’t get that opportunity. So it definitely lit a fire inside me to keep going.”
Derek Carr Was Ready to Move On
While it was clear the plan was to move on from Derek Carr following his benching, the Raiders didn’t have a succession plan at quarterback. Once Tom Brady retired again, the team’s top option was off of the market, but Carr was still under contract. However, he had no intention of playing for the Raiders again and the only way he would’ve done it was to appease his teammates.
“Once they made my wife cry, that was pretty much over,” Carr said. “Once they made her cry, that was out. But the love for my teammates is what probably would have made me do it. But the way it worked out and the timing of things, I was just … it was time for me to move on. But who knows? You never know what will happen.”
Derek Carr Is Still Rooting for the Las Vegas Raiders
With 35,222 career passing yards and 217 passing touchdowns, Derek Carr is the all-time leading passer in Raiders history. It’s going to be a long time before anybody passes him up after spending nine years as a starter and only missing four regular season starts in that time. Though he’s now in New Orleans, many of his best friends still call Las Vegas home. He made it clear that he still plans to root for the team going forward.
“I have so many friends over there,” Carr said. “I want them to succeed. I want Jimmy to be healthy. I want him to play great, because that helps Davante [Adams]. It helps Maxx [Crosby], Josh Jacobs. It helps all my friends, Kolton [Miller], Andre [James]. I’m going to stop naming names because someone will get upset, but all my friends over there, I just want them to have success. That’s all I was ever trying to do is give my best so they could win.
“I want that so bad for them. I want them to feel that love of the game again. I want them to feel that excitement of the game again. I want to, even in the hard times, I want them to gel together, come together and say, it’s going to be all right and move on and keep pushing and I wish that for them and I hope the best for them, but I’m focused on our team. The thing that matters to me the most is the Saints win. I want my friends to have success and I don’t want them to have hard times, but I still want the Saints to win a little more.”
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