Matthew Stafford’s Super Bowl win should give Raiders fans hope
Matthew Stafford’s Super Bowl win came after he was placed in a great situation and that should Raiders fans hope for the future with Derek Carr.
For a long time with the Detroit Lions, Matthew Stafford was known as a QB that put up big numbers but was not good enough to carry his team to a title. The critics said that Stafford was just putting up empty stats and that his fourth-quarter comebacks and game-winning drives did not mean much because his team was never a true contender.
Now doesn’t that sound like what we have been hearing about Derek Carr for years now?
Now that Stafford has finally gone on an extended playoff run and won the Super Bowl, we can expect that the narrative around him will change dramatically. There are some talking heads out there that are making a case for him as a Hall of Famer now that he has a title to his name.
Derek Carr doesn’t have the crowning achievement of a ring on his resume but Stafford’s journey shows that he could if placed in the right situation.
Any Raiders fan that watched what Stafford did this year on a great team with great players and a great coach around him should look at their quarterback and know that he is good enough to do the same. Carr is good enough to get the Raiders to the playoffs and if placed in the right situation he could be the QB to take them all the way.
Getting to the playoffs may not be a big deal for a lot of franchises but it is for the Raiders as they have made the playoffs just twice since 2002.
Raiders likely going long-term with Derek Carr
Raiders fans and Raiders brass will likely be looking at Carr and thinking if we put the right pieces around this guy maybe we can win a Super Bowl too. It may not necessarily happen but it is a clearer path to contention than tearing everything down and rolling the dice on a rookie quarterback. It’s also more straightforward than giving up a ton of picks for an Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson type QB because many of the other pieces are not there.
Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler have given no indication that they plan to shake things up dramatically but that has not stopped the rumor mill from putting Carr in a bunch of hypothetical trades. They have also not yet committed to Carr long-term so the speculation will continue until the ink is dry on a new contract.
The Rams built up their roster intending to go out and get a QB that could take them over the hump and they had to pay a pretty penny to do so in the form of draft capital. The Raiders already have a very good QB on the roster and can use that draft capital to select young players that they can build around or use those picks to get proven veterans to help them win now.
Either way, they have the foundational piece in place to contend for a title and can choose which direction they want to build out the rest of the roster. The Rams proved this year that with the right staff and with the right team, even a QB that has been maligned for a decade for not winning can win it all and take their team to the promised land.