Next season will be the final year on the big five-year, $125 million extension Derek Carr signed with the Raiders back in 2017. That deal was signed following Carr’s big 2016 season, making him the highest-paid player in NFL history at that time. Whether the team opts to go down that road again with Carr remains to be seen.
Monday, the team announced their new General Manager Dave Ziegler and head coach Josh McDaniels. And the subject of their plans for Derek Carr was naturally among the subjects discussed more than once.
McDaniels was the longtime offensive coordinator for the Patriots, during which time he had Tom Brady every season until these past two years.
He is credited as well with helping the Patriots reach a 10-7 record with rookie Mac Jones at quarterback. Some have suggested he would be great for Carr. As you might expect, McDaniels had positive things to say about Carr, judging him from afar, while leaving suggesting there is room for growth.
“Derek’s won a lot of games in this league,” McDaniels said of Carr. “And we’ve competed against each other a number of times and I’ve a lot of respect for him, he certainly did a good job this year leading their offense.
“I spoke with him yesterday, we had a great conversation, looking forward to actually getting to meet him and get to know him as a person, as a human being, and getting to work in terms of developing our offense this year into what it’s going to be.
“But there’s no question we have the capacity and capability of winning with Derek here. We all know that and I look forward to the challenge of trying to grow not only Derek but everybody on the roster to try to reach out potential.
“I never feel like the player is a finished product and our job as coaches is to continue to identify places were we might get better and work hard to try to improve. And I know he’s completely on board with that. Again, we had a great conversation and I look forward to our relationship.”
Later it was Ziegler’s turn and, being the GM, it was right to point as to whether the team would be looking to give Carr an extension this offseason as now would figure to be the time that would happen. Ziegler was non-committal.
“I think the one thing that we all understand is there’s going to be a process of us learning Derek, Derek learning us, and fitting all those pieces together,” said Ziegler. “And I think that’s going to be step one is building the relationship. Understanding what Derek does well, Derek understanding what Josh and the offensive staff is trying to build, and I think as that collaboration goes, then you kind of see how everything fits together. You have to see how everything fits together and kind of work from that point. And we’re just really excited to have Derek here and to get to know him and get to know his strengths and get to work with him in our system.”
There are a couple of things to think about, and Ziegler seemed to touch on it when talking about how Bill Belichick ran the Patriots. He talked about Belichick making decisions based not just on how it will affect the team now, but one or two years down the road.
Regardless of whether the team was to decide to give Carr an extension this offseason or not, they have a decision to make right now.
On one hand, it could be beneficial from a win-now standpoint to keep Derek Carr this season and revisit this in 2023. On the other hand, he has trade value right now. Belichick was known for trading players just before they were to get a big payday — they sent Richard Seymour to the Raiders as you might recall — and that approach always seemed to work out for him.
So, certainly, Ziegler will have a decision to make this offseason with regard to Carr. Though it sounds like he’s at least not coming into this already with the intention of committing to Carr long-term.
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