Derek Carr gets last laugh in saga with Raiders
It's been known for weeks, nearly months now, that Derek Carr will not be the quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders next season. The team is ready to move on, and Carr wants a fresh start. Ideally, Las Vegas wanted to trade him somewhere. That way, they would get some sort of draft compensation in […]
It's been known for weeks, nearly months now, that Derek Carr will not be the quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders next season.
The team is ready to move on, and Carr wants a fresh start.
Ideally, Las Vegas wanted to trade him somewhere. That way, they would get some sort of draft compensation in return rather than just cutting him and suffering dead cap losses. That didn't come to fruition, though.
Carr refused to push his guaranteed money deadline of this Tuesday back any further, and his no-trade clause put all the power in his own hands.
The Raiders were pretty tied up by the contract they had given him already.
Ultimately, Carr decided that it made the most sense for him to become a free agent and truly seek out the best opportunity for him. It makes plenty of sense.
The Raiders were not going to allow him to fully gauge his opportunities, and both sides were in a time crunch. Las Vegas could not afford to have Carr on the roster after 4 p.m. EST on Tuesday due to the $40.4 million guaranteed that they would have owed him.
That was the biggest deciding factor in this entire situation, and other teams were fully aware of that.
The New Orleans Saints agreed to compensation for Carr before meeting with him individually last week.
That being said, that seems like it was just their way of being aggressive.
They knew that they had no interest in trading for Carr on his current contract. They needed for the Raiders to agree to potential terms before they were able to have discussions with the QB, though.
Carr got the last laugh against the Raiders as they will release him, and be on the lookout for a new quarterback during this off-season.
