Raiders: Would Mike Mayock go after biggest Clemson Tiger of them all?
What would Deshaun Watson bring to the Las Vegas Raiders?
Derek Carr is coming off an excellent year where he put up career highs in yards, yards per attempt, QB Rating, and QBR. He was the driving force behind several wins for the Raiders in 2020 and helped make up for an abysmal defense for much of the year.
He is a franchise-level quarterback and has been a leader for this team for his entire tenure.
Despite all of these positives, even the most fervent Derek Carr supporter can’t argue against Deshaun Watson being a superior quarterback. The passing numbers are similar as both quarterbacks are in the 67-70% completion range, and have hovered in the 25-30 touchdowns per year range over most of their careers.
Both also do not throw many interceptions with career averages between 9-10 thrown per year.
Watson has the superior air yards per attempt but some of that can be attributed to the Gruden style of offense versus a more downfield passing game in Houston. Where Watson really differentiates himself from Carr is in his dual-threat ability and playmaking skills.
Carr is a solid athlete who, when pressed to, can make plays with his legs and extend plays but it has never been a primary feature of his game. Watson on the other hand, excels at improvisation, and his rushing ability has been a massive weapon for the Texans during his tenure and the numbers plainly show that.
In 54 games for the Texans, Deshaun Watson has 307 rushing attempts for 1,677 yards and 17 touchdowns. In contrast, Derek Carr has 214 rushing attempts for 635 yards and six touchdowns in 110 career games for the Raiders.
This is not a knock on Carr as it is just not something he has in his toolkit and is not something he is expected to do with any regularity.
It is no secret that Jon Gruden loves mobile quarterbacks dating back to his first tenure with the Raiders where he turned journeyman Rich Gannon into an NFL MVP. This affinity for QBs that can run spurred much of the speculation that Gruden brought in Marcus Mariota to steal Derek Carr’s job.
That of course did not happen as Carr started all 16 games, but when Mariota came on in relief against Los Angeles, there were several designed QB runs called by Gruden that we did not see with Carr in the game.
Because of his dual-threat ability and incredible talent level, Watson has vaulted himself into the conversation as one of the top five QBs in the NFL. He did incredible things this year with a depleted supporting cast including throwing for 4,800 yards and 33 touchdowns, including 444 rushing yards and three touchdowns, but he alone could not will the Texans to the playoffs despite glowing individual stats.
This brings us to the next topic, is this a move the Raiders would entertain and what would it take to happen?