Las Vegas Raiders officially release QB Derek Carr
By Brad Weiss
The Las Vegas Raiders officially released Derek Carr on Tuesday, just hours before his $40.4 million contract became guaranteed for the 2023 season.
Though we all knew this was coming sooner than later, on Tuesday, the Las Vegas Raiders officially released quarterback Derek Carr. After nine seasons as the team’s starter, Carr’s time with the franchise is officially over, as the team released him just before his $40.4 million contract would become guaranteed for the 2023 season.
With his release, Carr finishes his Raiders career as the record holder in numerous statistical categories, but he was never able to help the team become a consistent winner. Through numerous coaching and player personnel changes, Carr remained the constant, and so did the losing.
Across his nine season, he made only one playoff start, though he did lead the team to two playoff berths. It seems like years ago that he was calling timeout to set up a game-winning field goal by Daniel Carlson to put the Raiders into the playoffs, but that was only 13 months ago, the last huge moment of his Raiders career.
On Tuesday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweeted out that the deed had been done:
Raiders officially informed QB Derek Carr that he has been released, per source. Team released him before $40.4 million in his contract became guaranteed today.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 14, 2023
Carr is now a free agent and is expected to draw interest from the Saints and Panthers, amongst others. pic.twitter.com/X2v6pDecqP
Raiders now must figure out what is next
Now, general manager David Ziegler and head coach Josh McDaniels have to find their next starting quarterback, and they have to get it right. They took over a playoff team from the year before and went 6-11 in their first season at the helm of the franchise, suffering some of the more embarrassing losses in recent memory.
Carr had a subpar season in his last campaign with the Silver and Black, but did finish his nine-year career with the team with 35,222 passing yards, 217 touchdowns, and 99 interceptions.
Don’t feel so bad for No. 4, as he is certain to land on his feet, and make a ton of money next season starting for some NFL team at quarterback. There were some incredible moments with him under center over the last nine seasons, but the new regime felt he was not the guy to lead this team moving forward, so now they have to go find out who is.