Las Vegas Raiders: Is extending Derek Carr the correct move?
By Nick Ellis
What are the issues with the Raiders under Carr?
With a career record of 47-63, the biggest issue in the Carr era is that the team has not won enough games. The Raiders have reached the playoffs one time with Carr, where the team was 12-3 before he was injured, but that was in 2016, and in the next four seasons, Carr has not been able to lead the Raiders to a winning season.
Although the Raiders defense should no doubt take the majority of the blame for these losses, it does not appear that the defense is anywhere close to becoming a top-ten unit anytime soon, and even more, the pressure will have to be put on Carr to win games.
At this point, we have to come to terms with the fact that the team will go as far as their quarterback can take them because between missed draft picks, poor coaching, and a massive amount of injuries that the franchise can never seem to get over, the defense will continue to be a liability.
I believe Carr is a very good quarterback, with his only two weaknesses being his lack of risk-taking and inability to make things happen in the red zone, which is also a play-calling issue. There are not too many quarterbacks that I believe are better than Carr.
The debate on Carr being the answer for Las Vegas should not be based on if Carr is a good quarterback or not, because the answer is clear that Carr is a good quarterback and would be winning a lot more games in a better-managed organization. The debate should be if Carr will ever be able to completely carry the Raiders and get them over the hump with no help on defense.
Unfortunately, with how good Carr is, I am not sure he can take us to the next level unless the Raiders can make great improvements to the defense. On the other hand, there are only a handful of quarterbacks that I believe could take the Raiders to the next level at this point.
The Raiders have no players even close to the Pro Bowl on their defense, one of the weakest wide receiving groups in the NFL, and an old, injury-prone offensive line. We are asking a lot of Carr with this team, but that is what happens when you are the quarterback of a team.