Raiders news: No hard feelings from Derek Carr, Jimmy G an improvement?
By Brad Weiss
The Las Vegas Raiders are turning the page on the Derek Carr Era, and he recently spoke about the split, wishing the Silver and Black success.
In Week 1 of the 2023 NFL season, the Las Vegas Raiders will have a player not named Derek Carr as their starting quarterback. For the franchise, that will be the first time that has happened since the 2013 NFL campaign, and since then, Carr has gone to set nearly every Raiders passing record.
All of that came to an end this past season, as Carr was benched with two games remaining, and the team technically still alive for a playoff spot. Speaking Friday as a keynote for a fundraiser for Capstone Christian Academy, Carr spoke about how he feels about the Silver and Black and how it all ended.
"“I’ve got no hard feelings for them,” Carr said. “Maybe there’s a difference of opinion in certain things, but that’s in anything. … I want Josh and Dave to have success.”"
Carr has always tried to say the right thing in his press conferences, or when asked the tough questions. The truth is, the way he was let go was like no other franchise QB in his prime that I can remember, so there has to be some kind of chip on his shoulder going into next season.
Can the Raiders improve with Jimmy G?
As the team makes the move from Carr to Jimmy Garoppolo, some in the fan base think it was a lateral more, or even that they will have a worse player at the position in 2023. According to general manager David Ziegler, that could not be further from the truth, as he told Tashan Reed from The Athletic that the team will actually improve with Jimmy G under center.
That is high praise from Ziegler, who has torn this roster apart in hopes to bring a more consistent brand of winning to the desert. Hopefully, he is the right guy at the helm, because the team has some great draft capital this season, and we have seen how bad drafting has impacted this roster in recent years.
The truth is, the Raiders have all the weapons they need on offense to be very successful with Garoppolo at quarterback, and he is familiar with Josh McDaniels’s system. Maybe he comes into Las Vegas and wins like he has at every step of his career, but that remains to be seen.