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If the Las Vegas Raiders are going to make the playoffs in 2020, Derek Carr needs to have his best season yet.
Derek Carr can’t be average. He needs to be borderline brilliant.
It’s been almost 20 years since the Raiders have won a playoff game. The last time they enjoyed such success was the 2002 AFC Championship Game. Since then, the longest draught in the franchise’s history by a wide margin.
Carr, entering his seventh season, is facing a crisis point. At 29 years old, Carr is coming off a litany of career-highs including yards (4,054), completing percentage (70.4) and yards per attempt (7.9). Those numbers ranked eighth, second and ninth among all qualified passers.
Can Derek Carr be the Raiders’ answer at quarterback?
Yet Carr’s job doesn’t feel safe. General manager Mike Mayock signed a high-profile backup in Marcus Mariota. A year ago, one of the league’s worst-kept secrets was the infatuation of head coach Jon Gruden with Kyler Murray, before he went No. 1 overall to the Arizona Cardinals.
With the team now in Las Vegas, Carr needs to be the sizzle for the Raiders’ steak. Ownership needs a face for billboards, a reason for primetime viewers to tune in. In the NFL, it’s the quarterback who draws such attention. To this point, Carr has teased such potential but never truly realized it.
In a division with the world-champion Kansas City Chiefs and the league’s best quarterback in Patrick Mahomes, Carr must improve. The Raiders haven’t beaten the Chiefs once at Arrowhead Stadium during Carr’s career and have only won twice at Oakland, both in last-minute efforts on Thursday Night Football.
Carr has enough weapons around him to be successful. Tyrell Williams, Hunter Renfrow and rookie first-round pick Henry Ruggs III provide formidable perimeter help. Darren Waller is a top-flight tight end and Josh Jacobs had a strong argument for Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2019. The offensive line? Fantastic.
If Carr can rise to the challenge and become a legitimate threat under center on a weekly basis, the Raiders will rise and Vegas will be ablaze with silver and black pride.
If Carr can’t do it, the whispers of replacing him will turn to shouts, and not only from the fans.