Raiders Trade or Shade: Will Derek Carr pick a team or force free agency
Raiders Trade or Shade: Will Derek Carr pick a team or force free agency
Why he takes a trade offer
As previously mentioned, there is expected to be quite a robust market for Derek Carr. There are a lot of quarterback-needy teams and with a draft class that really only has 3 quarterbacks that can start right away, a veteran guy who has proved he’s got all the ability in the world would be a hot commodity. The contract in which he carries will undoubtedly play a part in what compensation they get back though.
Carr signed a 3-year, 121.5 million dollar extension with 65 million guaranteed this offseason after only having one more year on his previous contract. That put him at an average of 40.5 million a year with most of it coming in the last two years. The Raiders included an out after one year though, where they could get out after the first year and have next to no dead cap from the deal.
His base salary goes from 32.9 million in 2023 to 41.9 million in 2024 and then 41.2 million in 2025, the final year of the contract. In the grand scheme of things, 40 million dollars for a starting caliber quarterback won’t even be in the top 10 of highest-paid contracts in 3 years. The way the contract is constructed too, the total dead cap hit for a team is going to essentially be his base salary alone.
Derek’s brother David Carr, who currently is an analyst for NFL Network, has somewhat been his proxy of talking about the situation. He has stated that Derek does still want to play football, that he will be looking for a team that has a structured, good relationship between owner and head coach, and that has a good defense in place so that he has the opportunity to compete right away.
Basically taking a shot at all the things he was deprived of with the Raiders.
The situation is somewhat weird when you think about whether he’d take a trade or not. In theory, any team that is willing to trade for him would be willing to offer him a deal on the open market. For him it makes sense to take a trade, being that he can pick wherever he wants to go and more than likely won’t generate as good of a contract as he already has.
With no more guaranteed money left on his deal, it would make sense that he’d want to start over. But any team that acquires him can always restructure it in a way that would benefit both sides after the deal was done, giving him the ability to keep his 40+ million a year base salary and get some extra security along the way.