Raiders put Carr in position to succeed heading into training camp

By Case Keefer (contact)

Saturday, July 16, 2022 | 2 a.m.

If someone had made a bingo card for Derek Carr’s training-camp statements over the last several years, comparing his receivers to Davante Adams would have amounted to a free square.

In the two seasons since the Raiders moved to Las Vegas, for example, Carr has likened his rapport with slot receiver Hunter Renfrow to the one he famously developed in college at Fresno State with Adams. He’s also equated tight end Darren Waller’s gamebreaking ability to Adams’ more famous version.

Such assertions will probably diminish as the Raiders begin to prepare for this season when the full team reports to training camp at their Henderson headquarters on Wednesday July 20. That’s because Carr now, of course, has the real thing with Adams joining the team this offseason via trade from the Green Bay Packers and signing a new five-year, $140 million contract.

“It’s kind of surreal,” Carr said of being reunited with Adams at minicamp practices last month.

Carr may need to pinch himself a few more times before the Raiders kick off the regular season on Sunday Sept. 11 at the Los Angeles Chargers. After a topsy-turvy tenure since being selected by the Raiders in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft, Carr now has almost everything he could ever ask for entering his ninth year.

Beyond Adams, Carr gets to keep the pair of aforementioned Pro Bowlers in Renfrow and Waller as additional targets. He’s also got the most forward-thinking offensive mind of his career in new coach Josh McDaniels to build a scheme around his strengths.

Oh, and he inked his own three-year, $121.5 million extension this offseason.

“It’s been freeing,” Carr said. “It’s just nice for that stuff to be out of the way so we just play football.”

In his pair of news conferences since the new deal, Carr has been more insightful and less insistent. He’s always been thoughtful and confident, but his new demeanor comes off as calmer than the ones he carried into the past couple seasons.

A year ago, Carr said he was so determined to make a winner out of the Raiders that he’d “rather go down with the ship” than play anywhere else. Two years ago, he railed that he was “tired of being disrespected.”

The perception of Carr seems to be changing coming off arguably his three best seasons a professional, with multiple teams reportedly inquiring about trading for him before he resigned. He recently received an honorable mention nod in ESPN’s annual top 10 quarterbacks list from an anonymous survey of executives, coaches and players.

“I think Derek is in a position to where he’s chasing to be one of those all-time greats,” Adams said after he was asked to compare the Raiders’ quarterback with his former quarterback, two-time defending MVP Aaron Rodgers. “That’s not a slight on Derek whatsoever…We’re both chasing it and still got a lot in front of us.”

Carr is rightfully getting a lot of credit for keeping the Raiders together amid a tumultuous 2021 season that saw the scandal-spurred resigning of coach Jon Gruden and the deadly high-speed car crash involving former receiver Henry Ruggs III. He led the team to the playoffs for the second time in his career, where they came nine yards away from forcing overtime against the eventual AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals.

But Carr threw an interception on 4^th-and-goal with a pass that was short of the end zone to end the game. To the shrinking number of skeptics, it was the latest show of why the Raiders can’t win at the highest level with Carr, who’s 57-70 for his career as a starter.

Without saying so explicitly, Carr has often, and perhaps fairly, implied that the disappointing record is more about the organization’s failings than his own shortcomings. He’s joked multiple times that he could write a gripping book about all the upheaval he’s encountered with the Raiders.

His brother David Carr called out the franchise by saying it needed to “give (Derek) what he needs to succeed,” amid contract talks in January. That drew the ire of owner Mark Davis — who joked he wished he could trade David Carr — but maybe he also got the message based on this offseason’s moves.

Largely because of the addition of Adams to stack an embarrassment of skill-player riches around him, Carr is better equipped to succeed in silver and black than ever before. It’s pivotal he does so this year given the extension he signed.

Although Carr has described it as giving him security, none of the money is guaranteed beyond this season. He may have vaguely cited that situation when asked about his contract at minicamp by saying “someone will want to ask something or come up with something that won’t even matter in 12 months.”

But it was in passing and not something he was stuck on, quite unlike other slights he felt the need to address vigorously going into past seasons. The Raiders’ longtime quarterback appears different this season, fully comfortable in his situation.

“It’s been fun just to go to work and just grind, go out, make a mistake, learn from it, go out the next day, make it better,” he said. “It’s just been football, and it’s been fun.”

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