Where is the Las Vegas Raiders window for success?

Are the Raiders all-in on Derek Carr?

When are these rumors of trading Derek Carr going to stop? If he was indeed 100% the Raiders’ guy, wouldn’t these rumors be put to bed immediately and never brought up again?

We had rumors milling the first year of Jon Gruden where it was believed he and Carr did not get along and that Gruden wanted to move on from him. Then they started winning and those subsided, then they came up again, Carr started winning again, and they subsided once more.

Then we had the Colts this past week incline the Raiders for a trade of Carr to which they prominently declined and deemed Carr as “not available.”

So, what is it? What is the answer?

Are we next going to hear about the Texans or Patriots calling about Carr and the Raiders not totally backing down, or is Carr the guy moving forward?

Personally, to me, this seems very Carson Wentz in Philly-esque, where you have a quarterback you should be deeming your franchise guy in definite terms, but you have a Nick Foles on the roster still or you draft a Jalen Hurts.

It creates disharmony in the organization with all the uncertainty and wishy-washiness.

I think there’s an argument to be made on either side of the coin as to whether to keep Carr or not. Carr has some undeniable goods and some pretty damning bads. The good news for Carr is his stats seem to keep progressing in an upward trajectory in prominent areas.

Passing Yards

• 4,049 yards passing in 2018
  4,054 in 2019
  4,103 this past season

Touchdown Passes

• 19 touchdowns in 2018
  21 in 2019
  27 this past season

Passer Rating

• Passer rating of 93.9 in 2018
  100.8 in 2019
  101.4 this past season

QBR

• QBR of 46.5 in 2018
  64.1 in 2019
  71.0 this past season

Sacks taken have also dipped tremendously, and he’s managed to keep his interceptions to single-digits the past two years.

Then again, I believe it’s a fair assessment to make of Carr that he fits into the category of quarterbacks who are only great when things around them are great as well. Everything has to be perfect, or pretty close to it for their play to elevate.

Some quarterbacks don’t need everything perfect. There are guys like Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, and Deshaun Watson. Then some quarterbacks need help, like Carr, Dak Prescott, Matt Ryan, and Jared Goff.

That fact naturally turns teams off to committing to them long-term, and it is happening again right here with our guy Derek Carr.