Former Raiders player goes off on Derek Carr
The Las Vegas Raiders recently let their once-franchise quarterback Derek Carr go. Well, they haven't yet, but the two sides have agreed he won't be back next season, as he will play elsewhere. The Raiders will either trade him or cut him and allow him to choose where he wants to go. This has somewhat […]
The Las Vegas Raiders recently let their once-franchise quarterback Derek Carr go. Well, they haven't yet, but the two sides have agreed he won't be back next season, as he will play elsewhere. The Raiders will either trade him or cut him and allow him to choose where he wants to go.
This has somewhat divided the fan base. A ton of Raiders fans love Carr and what he did for his nine years with the team. And some fans always wanted him gone and never thought he was really that good.
Recently, one of Carr's former teammates, linebacker K.J. Wright chose to say exactly how he felt once he had a microphone in his face.
"Man, I love Derek Carr, I loved playing with him," Wright said on the Jim Rome show. "But his performance was kind of similar to last year, they couldn't find ways to win games, but, just his decision-making. Like what are you looking at, what are you thinking? That roster was way too talented to put on the kind of performance they did this year.
"You have the run game, you have your star receivers… at the end of the day, they brought in the house for Carr. They built up the defense. So for him to make those poor decisions, for him to lose those ball games the way he did. In his career he is under .500, he has been to one playoff game, won zero… We are in the business of winning, they had to make that move."
Let's start with the fact that Wright only played with Carr for one season and that was last season. So, I don't know if he can form that big of an opinion on a dude he knew for one year, or played with for a season, I should say.
Secondly, he mentioned that they spent on the defense, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Per Spotrac, the Raiders were 29th in defensive spending this last offseason. Yes, they spent some money, but it was on the offensive side of the ball.
Their defense ended as the 28th-ranked defense, and Carr hasn't had a defense ranked higher than 20th since he has been on the Raiders. He has also had a defense finish 30th or worse three times.
So, yeah, he could have been better for sure. But, let's not throw out false narratives to make him look worse than he really was. This is a guy that gave his all to the franchise and he deserves more respect than that, especially from a former teammate.
Featured Image Via Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
