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The hype surrounding Derek Carr heading into this season was the highest its been since he finished third in the MVP race in 2016. The Las Vegas Raiders paired him up with former college teammate and five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Davante Adams, which was supposed to further unlock his game. Through two games, Carr hasn’t been able to live up to the hype.
He’s only completing 61.8% of his passes and has thrown four touchdowns to three interceptions while leading the Raiders to an 0-2 record. Head coach Josh McDaniels has taken a lot of heat for the rough start to the season but some believe Carr deserves a big part of the blame. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith named Las Vegas the most disappointing team in the NFL so far this season and specifically went after Carr for how he’s been playing.
“Do you want to be pedestrian? Do you want to be average? … Or do you want to step the hell up and understand who the hell is in your division? You got to answer that call and you are the face of the franchise. You give all the right quotes, you say all the right things, you represent the franchise off the field in a prestige fashion – we appreciate that but when you gonna step the hell up and remind everybody you can ball too and lead this team to another level? Josh Jacob ain’t no scrub Davante Adams a stud, arguably the best wide receiver in football. Waller is a bad brother one of the top three tight ends in football in a lot of people’s eyes. Hunter Renfrow ain’t no joke you got weapons. What the hell are you doing? Handle your business,” Smith said on ESPN’s “First Take” on September 19.
Carr Acknowledges Raiders Need to Play Better
Carr has never been one to make excuses for bad performances. The Raiders do have serious offensive line issues but they’ve done what they can to set him up for success. He has the tools to put together his best season yet but the early signs haven’t been great. Carr knows the Raiders can play better than they have been.
“You have to be able to take it,” Carr said when asked about taking feedback from the coaches after Sunday’s loss. “And it’s not personal. You can’t take it personal. Coach is just trying to help the team, help us get better. And if you can take that and do it in practice, I think that’s where the improvement comes. So, do I think we can improve? Absolutely, I think we can. In fact, I know we can, but we have to do that when it comes to practice on Wednesday.”
Carr Needs to Turn This Season Around
The Raiders have invested heavily in the offense this season. Carr, Darren Waller, Hunter Renfrow and Davante Adams all got huge contracts this offseason. There’s no reason why the team hasn’t scored more than 23 points in either of the first two games.
Whether it’s his fault or not, Carr will take the majority of the blame if the offense continues to struggle. That’s just the life of a quarterback. In this case, he deserves a lot of blame for the Week 1 loss against the Chargers. He missed a lot of throws and three of them turned into ugly interceptions. He was better against Arizona but still didn’t do enough to get the offense moving in the second half. There was some poor playcalling from McDaniels but Carr needs to be able to hold such a big lead.
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