Entering his sixth season as the starting quarterback for the Oakland Raiders, Derek Carr is on the doorstep of rewriting the franchise’s record book.
The Oakland Raiders drafted Derek Carr in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft, and since then, he has made a steady climb up the franchise’s record book. Now, entering his sixth season as the starting quarterback, Carr is on the brink of being the most prolific passer in team history, and he still has a lot of career left.
This past season, Carr made a bunch of moves up the record book, passing former Raiders legend Rich Gannon in multiple categories. In 2019, he has his eyes set on Snake, as Ken Stabler is the only man who stands in front of him in terms of passing yards, while Stabler and Daryle Lamonica are currently ahead of Carr in passing touchdowns.
Carr is already the franchise leader in completions (1,759), and attempts (2800), and has the highest completion percentage of any quarterback in team history that qualifies (62.8).
In 2018, Carr had a monster season for the Raiders, and while the team won only four games, he put up some of the best numbers of his career. He threw for over 4,000 yards for the first time in his career, did not throw an interception from Week 6 through Week 16, and completed a career-high 68.9 percent of his passes.
Incredibly, some Raiders fans are calling for him to be traded.
The 2018 season was a tough one for the entire team, as Carr was playing behind two rookie tackles, and saw Amari Cooper traded midway through the season. Through it all, Carr continued to perform, utilizing guys like Seth Roberts, Brandon LaFell, and Marcell Ateman, not necessarily household names.
Free agent signing Jordy Nelson played well late in the year, but was not a consistent player throughout the 16-game slate. Sure, Jared Cook continues to enjoy a career renaissance in Oakland, but to put the kind of numbers Carr did with this group was pretty impressive.
In 2019, Carr will defintely become the Raiders all-time leader in passing yards, as he needs only 340 to pass Stabler’s mark of 19,078. When it comes to touchdown passes, he currently needs 29 to pass Staber for first all-time at 151, and 27 to pass Lamonica for No. 2.
With a good season, he could end up passing both.
Carr appears to have the backing of new general manager Mike Mayock, so hopefully all the talk of him being traded will start to fade away. He is on the brink of being the most prolific passer in team history, and will be only 28-years old when the 2019 NFL season kicks off.