Raiders: Which 2023 NFL Draft QB is best to come in and replace Derek Carr?

Raiders: Which 2023 NFL Draft QB is best to come in and replace Derek Carr?

Is it CJ Stroud? I don’t believe so.

There’s going to be a common theme among the first three guys I talk about here- they are unpolished products that are going to need some serious coaching to find success in this league.

Now, that is certainly doable in certain situations……but I’m sorry to say, Raider Nation, the Josh McDaniels-led Raiders are not that type of situation.

I do not claim to be an expert on any four of these big rookie quarterbacks, but from what I’ve gathered about CJ Stroud, he, along with most Ohio State quarterbacks under Ryan Day, throw to mostly wide-open guys. The field is spread out.

High-talent receivers are schemed open and then build upon that themselves in the open field.

Whenever I watched Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave in recent years, it looked to me like they were getting open so effortlessly, not even having to kick it into high gear most of the time- which, obviously they both are more than capable of doing now on their own as they have proven in their rookie years.

Same goes for Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Sorry if this doesn’t come off the best, but he’s not particularly fast and a lot of his success from 2021 came from being schemed wide open in the middle of the field matched up on linebackers and also against opposition’s third corner with Olave and Wilson matched up with the top two corners themselves.

CJ Stroud also had pretty good offensive lines in front of him in his two seasons as the Buckeyes starter. The Buckeyes only allowed 12 sacks the entire 2022 season. That came in tied for seventh-best in the nation.

They gave up 17 the year before, which came in just outside the top ten in the nation.

Stroud has set himself apart from more recent Ohio State quarterbacks with his pocket presence. He’s not nearly the runner Justin Fields or JT Barrett were, nor does he even appear to want to show off the legs.

He is a pure pocket passer who has always had very good protection and wide-open guys to throw to. That’s not a knock on him. That is just the reality.

I don’t believe he’s getting either of those things in his first year with these Raiders. Derek Carr was pressured 131 times in 2022 at 20.3% of the time. That was middle of the pack for the NFL on both accounts.

Stroud would most likely be coming in from an Ohio State system with a very spread-out offense and quality line protection to a run-heavy offense that basically prays Davante Adams gets open in the passing game with middle-of-the-pack line protection in the very best-case scenario.

The former Buckeye needs a coach who’s going to spread the field for him and unfortunately, I do not believe that to be Josh McDaniels.