Derek Carr compares Marcus Mariota pairing to Saints’ one-time Brees-Hill duo

By Case Keefer (contact)

Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021 | 2 a.m.

The moment after Marcus Mariota’s first touchdown this season, a four-yard run in the Raiders’ win over the Cowboys last week, stood out as much as the actual play to interim coach Rich Bisaccia.

Starting quarterback Derek Carr rushed over from the other side of the field, where he was split out as a receiver, to join in on the celebration with his backup.

“Derek might have been the first or second guy to congratulate him,” Bisaccia said. “So, I think Derek is about the team. Derek is about doing whatever we can do to put ourselves in position to win a game. I think you see it by the way he prepares, by the way in which he plays, and they certainly have a professional relationship with respect to each other’s job and what they are trying to do to help us win.

Ever since Las Vegas inked Mariota to a two-year, $17.5 million deal two seasons ago — the contract was reworked to a smaller amount this offseason — there’s been outside chatter on his role with the team and how he fits with Carr. As recently as two weeks ago, with the Raiders riding a three-game losing streak before the Cowboys’ victory, some fans were calling for Mariota to start over Carr.

There’s never been any signs of tension between the two high-profile passers, however, and that doesn’t appear to be changing even with Mariota now “part of the packages,” in Bisaccia’s words, going forward for the rest of the season. Carr and Mariota, who started at least parts of five seasons in Tennessee, were friendly before becoming teammates but have since become closer with a relationship the former describes as “awesome.”

“To have him out there on the field, to have him do what he does in the run game and things like that, helps us so much,” Carr said. “You saw it work in New Orleans with Taysom (Hill) when Drew (Brees) was there. They were still throwing the ball all over the place, and it’s helping us do some different things. It’s making the defenses have to go talk about some other things in their meetings, waste some of their meeting time on this instead of only talking about this, and it’s great because (Mariota) is one of the best in the league at (being a dual threat). He won a Heisman doing it.”

Mariota can execute more than just gimmicky run plays, though. He hasn’t yet attempted a pass with the Raiders this season, but if he keeps getting multiple snaps in the final six regular-season games, that seems likely to change.

He filled in admirably for Carr in his only extended action last year, passing for 226 yards and scoring two touchdowns (one passing and one rushing) while completing 17 of 28 attempts in a Week 15 overtime loss to the Chargers. For their careers, the two passers’ statistics aren’t all that different

Carr grades out slightly higher by any advanced rating, mostly by virtue of a lower touchdown-to-interception ratio, but Mariota has the edge by career yards per attempt at 7.5 to the former’s 7.1. If Mariota ever wanted to get vicious with his trash talk, he could point out that he’s won a playoff game — something Carr has long chased and never gotten the opportunity to accomplish.

But it doesn’t appear to ever get that contentious between the two. They’re more playful, finding ways to cheer each other on.

Carr flashed Mariota’s native Hawaiian “shaka” — or hang loose — symbol after the touchdown last week, and it wasn’t the only time he used the hand gesture. Carr also looked for Mariota on the sideline and shot the shaka in his direction after he ran for 22 yards to pick up a first down, his longest rush since 2017.

“I always call myself Carr-iota and he gets a kick out of that one,” Carr said of Mariota. “Anytime I scramble in practice or in a game, I come up to him and I go, ‘Carr-iota, bro,’ and he’ll laugh at me.”

Mariota’s longest run of the year came in Week 1 when he broke free for a 31-yard rush on the Raiders’ third play of the game. But he strained his quadriceps on the play and then went on injured reserve for more than a month.

Injury concerns are one of the biggest reasons why Mariota, a former No. 2 overall draft pick, hasn’t gotten the chance at another starting job. He said becoming a full-time starter again someday remained his ultimate goal during a training camp news conference, but he hasn’t spoken publicly since then.

That opportunity is unlikely to come with the Raiders. Even as some overreact and get frustrated with Carr’s relative inconsistency, the eight-year captain leads the NFL with 3,414 passing yards.

If the Raiders do end up dropping down the standings in the final stretch of the year despite currently being tied for the AFC’s final playoff spot at 6-5, it still wouldn’t make any sense to commit to Mariota over Carr long-term. A full rebuild with a younger quarterback would be more likely.

But Carr isn’t thinking about the future, and from all outward indications, Mariota isn’t either despite unrestricted free agency looming after this season.

“He practices like he’s preparing to play all the time,” Bisaccia said of Mariota.

Sure enough, at Wednesday’s first full practice to prepare for Sunday’s Week 13 game against the Washington Football Team, Carr and Mariota were almost tough to tell apart without their jersey numbers. Mariota is slightly bigger — listed as an inch taller and 12 pounds heavier — but the accuracy of their passes and intensity with which they ran through individual drills mirrored each other.

They interacted on a few occasions, appearing to joke with each other and even compete in running to drills. The pairing has gone as smoothly as both promised when they became teammates, though Carr does have one gripe about Mariota’s touchdown rush on the run-pass option play call.

“I wish he would have thrown me that fade,” Carr joked.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or