Raiders struggles overshadow Derek Carr’s excellence in November
Raiders struggles overshadow Derek Carr’s excellence in November
Improvements up front in Las Vegas.
Derek Carr is starting to turn it up, but he isn’t the only one; the entirety of the offensive line is as well.
The start of the 2022 season was a true struggle for the Raiders’ O-line, but the unit has slowly improved, especially in pass blocking. As it stands, four-of-five starters up front have a better pass-blocking grade in November than they did in Weeks 1-8. Center Andre James is the only exception, whose grade dropped by only 5.5.
Jermaine Eluemunor and Alex Bars have shown the most improvement in this category. While Bars has increased his pass-blocking grade by 7.9, Eluemunor has done so by 14.3, joining Kolton Miller in the 75+ range.
Naturally, such an improvement has gone a long way in keeping Derek Carr up. Through Las Vegas’ first seven games of the season, the unit allowed 10 sacks. During the four contests in November, however, Carr was sacked just three times.
Carr’s average time to throw (via dropbacks) has also gone from 2.73 to 2.80 over the last month, thanks to the efforts of his line.
The Raiders’ OL once ranked 31-of-32, but ahead of Week 13, they come in at 19. Thanks to their improvements, Derek Carr has been able to string together some excellent games, and the Silver and Black have their first winning streak of the season.