Just when you thought things between Derek Carr and the Raiders couldn’t get awkward, they got awkward on Thursday.
Carr was forced to represent the Raiders in the Pro Bowl, except you couldn’t tell he was representing the Raiders because he was not wearing any Raiders gear.
During the Pro Bowl, Carr actually shot the Raiders after his victory in the precision passing contest. After finishing with the highest score, Carr was asked if he’d ever been this hot throwing football before, “Not so hot,” Carr said. “That’s probably why I’m going somewhere else.”
After the event, Carr also made it clear that he would be doing the team that benched him no favors with just two weeks remaining in the 2022 season. Carr has $40.4 million in contract money which becomes guaranteed if he’s still on the Raiders’ roster on Feb. 15 and it would help the team a lot if he were to extend that, but that’s definitely not going to happen.
“I don’t think it would be better for me,” Carr said Thursday, via ESPN.com.
Carr and the Raiders certainly haven’t been on the same page this offseason.
With Carr leaving Las Vegas soon, it would make sense for the team to let him start negotiating with other teams for a possible trade, but the Raiders haven’t granted him permission and Carr doesn’t seem too happy about it.
“It’s for [the Raiders] talk,” Carr said when asked about the situation. “I’m just following the rules. If it arrives on the date [and I get released]then I can talk to all my friends.”
If the Raiders are considering trading Carr, it would certainly make sense for them to let Carr’s side negotiate with other teams. Carr has a no-trade clause, so the easiest way for him to get dealt is to let his agent find a new team and then let that team trade to the Raiders. Instead, the Raiders took that option off the table.
That being said, Raiders general manager Dave Ziegler has given the impression that his team is planning to trade Carr at some point.
“There’s going to be people interested in Derek Carr. There’s no doubt about that,” Ziegler said Thursday on SiriusXM NFL radio. “He’s been a good football player in this league for a while. Like I said, he’s a phenomenal human being, and we’ll kind of see where that takes us.”
The problem for the Raiders is that the ball isn’t exactly in their court. If they want to trade Carr, he has to approve it and that trade would almost certainly have to be cut before the Feb. 15 trigger date in his contract.
The Raiders could theoretically keep Carr on the roster until March and try to find a trade then, but that would come with a serious risk. Since he has a no-trade clause, Carr could simply veto any deal after Feb. 15 to prevent a trade from happening and the Raiders still owe him the $40.4 million whether he’s on. the list or not.
The Raiders could release Carr before Feb. 15, but then they wouldn’t get any compensation in return, which would be a bad look for the front office, as they could certainly get some value for Carr in any potential trade.
From what Carr had to say on Thursday, it sounds like he’d rather be released. The Raiders QB even had a chat with another famous quarterback who has already been released: Peyton Manning.
“I was talking to Peyton about it today,” Carr said. “When he was released [from the Colts], he’s like, ‘Man, that was a little surreal at the time. You’re like, wow. You can’t even believe it. But then you just go to the next place and move on.”
If Carr wants to be released, the Raiders will find it difficult to trade him due to his no-trade clause, which means we could definitely seem a bit more dramatic between the two sides before anything is done. .
