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The Raiders franchise hasn’t always been fortunate to have elite quarterback play. Though Ken Stabler is the only Hall of Famer who spent the majority of his career playing quarterback for the Raiders, Rich Gannon may have had the best four-year stretch of any quarterback in franchise history. From 1999 to 2002, he made the Pro Bowl four times and won an MVP. He also won 41 games to just 23 losses.
After he retired, the Raiders had a difficult time finding a capable quarterback to take over the offense. Not until 2014, when the team drafted Derek Carr, did they find a long-term starter. While Carr has already earned the team records for completions, passing yards and touchdowns, he’s lacking in one major area: Wins. Through his eight years as the starter, he’s compiled a 54-70 record and only led the team to the playoffs once.
Gannon’s passing stats pale in comparison to Carr’s but he had a 45-29 record with the Raiders and led to the Super Bowl appearance. Gannon took to Twitter to question what the most important stat for a quarterback is.
He believes that wins are more important than any other stat.
One user asked if comeback victories were more important and Gannon said they were overrated.
You know who has a lot of comeback victories but not a lot of wins? Carr. In fact, he’s tied with Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford for most game-winning drives since 2014 with 28.
Many took Gannon’s tweets as an indirect shot at Carr.
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Gannon Stirs Controversy
While Carr is easily the best quarterback the Raiders have had since Gannon, much of the fan base is divided on him. Many like him and believes he’s the quarterback of the future while others would like to see him gone as soon as possible. Both sides saw Gannon’s tweet and chimed in.
Carr defenders were quick to point out that Gannon had very little success in the NFL until coming to a Raiders team that had Hall of Fame wide receivers in Tim Brown and Jerry Rice.
Another fan questioned why Gannon would feel it was necessary to throw shade at Carr.
There were also those that pointed out that using wins as the only stats to judge a quarterback is misguided considering football is a team sport.
It’s true that the Raiders haven’t always given Carr many keys to success. If he stays with the team, he’s about to have his sixth head coach. Everybody would like to see Carr when more games but there weren’t winning very much before he came to the team.
Other Fans Defend Gannon
Plenty of fans went after Gannon but there were many others that were happy that he irked Carr’s supporters.
There were also fans that weren’t happy with any Raiders fans going after Gannon considering all that he did for the team during his six years in Oakland.
The Carr debate will wage on as long as he’s on the team but Gannon certainly deserves credit for what he did regardless of what he says now. In fact, had things just gone a little bit different for the team in 2002, it’s very possible that Gannon would’ve led the team to a Super Bowl victory.
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