Derek Carr to become Raiders most prolific passer in 2019

Derek Carr already holds a handful of Oakland Raiders all-time records, but he should re-write the entire book during the 2019 NFL season.

When the Oakland Raiders selected Derek Carr in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft, the expectation was that he would work his way into the starting lineup. However, he ended up beating out Matt Schaub for the starting job, and has been the starting quarterback for the team since his first regular season game at the NFL level.

I was at that game against the New York Jets as a rookie, and have gotten the opportunity to not only cover Carr, but see him improve to the point where I feel he is one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. He has taken a lot of shots this offseason, as people feel his time with the Raiders is coming to an end, but he is going to have a monster 2019 season.

Looking at his career as a whole, Carr has already re-written some of the Raiders record book in terms of the passing categories. Heading into 2019, Carr is already the franchise leader all-time in attempts (2800), completions (1759), completion percentage (62.8), and yards per game (240.2), but he is on the doorstep of so many more.

In terms of passing yards and touchdowns, Ken Stabler is the gold standard for the Raiders, as he leads the team in both those categories. However, entering his second season in Jon Gruden’s system, Carr is ready to pass Snake in those area, and one of the categories should fall early in 2019.

Carr is only 340 yards away from breaking Stabler’s all-time passing yards record of 19,078, which is a total that should be reached during the first two games of the season, maybe even in Week 1 against Denver. In terms of touchdowns, Carr will have to put together a big year in that category, as he would need 29 to pass Stabler’s mark of 150.

In his career, Carr has reached 28 touchdowns once, in his near MVP season of 2016, while eclipsing 29 once as well, in 2015. That year, Carr threw for 32 touchdowns.

Incredibly, Carr has been able to move up the Raiders career leaderboard despite playing in far less games. He has appeared in 52 less games than Stabler, and has been much better at protecting the ball. Over the course of his career, Carr has been picked off only 54 times, which is an absurd number considering how many touchdown passes he has (122).

The final number to watch is game-winning drives, where Stabler has 17, and Carr already has 16.

Outside of Stabler, Carr also has his eyes set on Rich Gannon, who is the only quarterback in history with a higher passer rating than Carr (91.2 to 88.8). With a solid 2019 campaign, that record should fall as well.

With Carr, we are seeing a guy who will be the franchise leader in every passing category before all is said and done. For all the noise that surrounds this guy, and all the changes he has been a part of during his five seasons as the starter, he has done nothing but produce, and now, he has the best weapons he has ever had.