Derek Carr leaves the Las Vegas Raiders after being benched in a surprise move. Derek Carr, the quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders, has missed just three games in his nine years with the team. On Wednesday, head coach Josh McDaniels cited concerns over his offensive performance as the reason for not playing.
McDaniels has decided to bench Carr for the last two games and play Jarrett Stidham, including this Sunday’s matchup against the San Francisco 49ers at home. Chase Garbers, the team’s backup quarterback, is a practice squad member.
The Raiders (6-9), who made the playoffs a year ago, have lost two of their last three games and are now mathematically eliminated from postseason contention. Carr has thrown seven interceptions, and six touchdown passes in the previous four games while completing less than 55% of his throws each time.
A handful of these games, “I don’t believe anybody feels like we’ve done enough offensively,” McDaniels said. “I don’t think anybody’s happy with what we’ve done; we couldn’t put enough points on the board.”
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Davante Adams, a wide receiver who played with Carr at Fresno State, negotiated a trade with the Green Bay Packers in March to reunite with Carr. Adams added, “I don’t believe anybody was excited about it in here” when asked about the benching of Carr. I couldn’t be here if he weren’t nearby. Most people are aware of how I feel about him. My loyalty lies with my guy, of course. Adams has stated that he is more concerned with the upcoming two games than his plans.
Stidham was scheduled to speak to the media on Thursday while Carr was absent from the Raiders’ facility. Tight end Darren Waller stated, “You’ve got to kind of take the emotions out of it and recognize the only thing that can be helpful is support for Jarrett going forward.” “We’re all rooting for him because he finally has a shot, and we want to show him how much we believe in him.”
The Raiders are avoiding potential contract issues with Carr by sitting him out. Carr, who has a no-trade clause but might waive it, will collect $33 million for 2023 if the club doesn’t release or move him by February 15. In the case of a catastrophic injury, the sum would be guaranteed in 2024 and an additional $7.25m.
Many people had doubts about the Raiders continuing to put money into a quarterback who had only taken them to the playoffs twice until Wednesday’s news.
We’re all responsible for where we are, but I think this (decision) is more about getting a look at a guy we haven’t seen play in this circumstance against a couple of excellent, outstanding, outstanding,” McDaniels said. Derek has played countless football games. After the season, we’ll dive deeply into the data to see where we excelled and where we could improve for the following year.
Indeed, we had anticipated such an outcome. We had hoped for a different result than the one we find ourselves with now, but we are still deciding. Today is not the end of anything. After much discussion and consideration, we have come to this conclusion. It would give us a chance to evaluate [Stidham].
Since Stidham played for the Patriots for three years, McDaniels knows all about him. When McDaniels was on the Patriots’ staff, he oversaw the offense. Stidham has started three games for the Raiders so far this year, and he has completed 32 of 61 passes for 342 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions. To this day, he has done nothing.
Only two of Carr’s starts have come in the playoffs, and he’s missed only one in the regular season. He needed 165 yards to move into third place all-time in passing yards through the first nine career seasons, behind only Dan Marino (35,386).
McDaniels said, “Those aren’t easy conversations,” referring to his conversation with Carr. I have nothing but praise for him and the way he dealt with it. One could hardly hope to find a more exceptional human being than this one. We’ll have to see how things pan out, but it’s clear that he has long held great significance here. I refuse to try and foretell the future right now. Potentially significant events are numerous. All of that, we’re going to tackle one day at a time. We have to prepare for the 49ers right now.
