NFL
By: Brock Vierra
Let me start this by stating this is not an attack on Derek Carr or his personal life. This is strictly about football and the play that caused the New Orleans Saints to invest over 150 million dollars in the veteran QB. Carr who is one of the most emotional players in the league is noted for being a gem when the going gets tough. One of the league leaders in comebacks, since 2002 the Raiders have had two winning seasons total. Carr was the QB for those two years and the Raiders’ shortcomings are to blame on coaching and front-office decisions, not Carr.
However NFL analyst Warren Sharp posted a thread on Twitter calling Carr the worst QB inside the 10. Now I thought this would be like 10 clips across Carr’s nine-year career, handpicked to make him look bad. It was 27 clips within the past two seasons. There are five interceptions and Carr displayed a variety of ways to miss your receiver. Now Carr who has over 35,000 passing yards and 217 passing touchdowns has had tremendous success in his career. Success that reflects in his bank account via the four different contracts he signed since coming into the league.
But it would be inappropriate not to mention his 63-79 career record with 0 playoff wins. Now he’s the head man for a team that has zero identity on offense and an aging defense filled with question marks. Dennis Allen is a horrible head coach and Pete Carmichael Jr fails to prove that he can call an offense without the guidance of Sean Payton.
The benefit for Carr and the Saints is that the NFC South is a mess. Carolina is still in rebuild mode while we wait to see how Bryce Young plays in the pros, Atlanta has major question marks at the QB position and Tampa Bay has a similar problem to the Saints as they both have incredible defensive coordinators who fail to live up to the hype as a head coach. The division is for the taking and with Alvin Kamara and Jamaal Williams in the backfield, he may have the run game that inspired his success in 2016.
But the major issue for Carr is that we’ve seen him with weapons flanking him and he’s failed to get it done. He had Davante Adams, Hunter Renfrow, Darren Waller, and rushing leader Josh Jacobs last year and he had one of his worst statistical seasons ever. Now Renfrow had a down year and McDaniel’s scheme is awful but Carr missed throws up and down the field.
Now Carr is in a similar situation in New Orleans. He’s flanked with weapons, has an offensive line that has some questions, especially on his blind side, and a coordinator that doesn’t know his behind from a hole in the ground. The call, it’s gonna be a long year for the Saints. For as many comebacks he’s had, he’s thrown a lot of game-losing interceptions. He’s had a career-high in interceptions for two straight years. Both Josh McDaniels and Jon Gruden brought in QBs to challenge Carr for his job, something not common in the NFL if a coach believes in you while the Saints drafted his possible replacement in Jake Haener, and most importantly, he’s being paid a lot of money from a team that is cash strapped.
Thus this may be the best version of the Saints that Carr may see and with Michael Thomas commanding a lot of money with zero play, it’s a tough road for him. He has obvious flaws and those flaws occur in the red zone. He hasn’t shown the ability to lead a team to the next level and his only saving grace is that it would cost too much money to get rid of him.
Now I may be totally wrong and he may be a top 10 QB, something he’s achieved before. He’s a Pro Bowler and when he retires, he’ll probably have more than $300 million in career earnings when he retires. He’s no scrub but the NFL is about being the best of the best and as of right now, he’s not there. As far as I see it, this is either a massive success or the catalyst for a full rebuild. If I had to bet all the money in my pockets, I’m picking the latter.
