Super Bowl LVII reaction and NFL offseason outlook
USA TODAY Sports’ Mackenzie Salmon, Jarrett Bell, and Tyler Dragon react to Super Bowl 57 and breakdown the NFL offseason.
USA TODAY
Derek Carr won’t be back, his divorce now official from the Silver and Black.
Tuesday, the Las Vegas Raiders released the nine-year veteran and four-time Pro Bowler, who is also the franchise’s all-time leader in most significant passing categories – including yards (35,222), touchdowns (217) and QB rating (91.8).
The move hardly came as a surprise after Carr was benched for the final two regular-season games of the 2022 season. He subsequently stepped away from the team amid backup Jarrett Stidham’s brief trial run, which concluded with two losses.
Carr, who did not have a farewell news conference, posted a goodbye to Raiders fans on social media following the regular season. Ironically, he returned to the club’s facility in Henderson, Nevada, after being added to the AFC Pro Bowl roster, the league’s all-star event staged in Las Vegas this year.
“We have a lot of respect for Derek Carr and what he has meant to the Raiders organization for the last nine years,” coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler said in a statement. “Derek has done great things in this league and we’re thankful to have been able to work with him this past year. He is a true professional and we appreciate his hard work in striving to produce the results we all desire. We wish Derek and his family all the best in the future.”
Why was Derek Carr released now?
The Raiders had to make a decision before Wednesday, the date at which Carr’s $32.9 base salary for the 2023 season would have become guaranteed along with an additional $7.5 million of future earnings. While a deal might have been optimal, Carr’s no-trade clause allowed him to veto any move he didn’t agree to. He was not willing to extend the deadline to facilitate a move.
“I don’t think that would be best for me,” Carr said during the inaugural “Pro Bowl Games.”
When can Derek Carr join a new team?
The termination of his contract makes Carr a “street free agent,” meaning he’s eligible to sign with a new club immediately. League-wide free agency doesn’t begin until March 15, when players with expiring contracts are free to sign new deals. But a month-long head start should be a boon for Carr.
Where might Derek Carr sign?
A more detailed breakdown of Carr’s options can be found here, but here are a few to keep in mind:
► Atlanta Falcons: They’ll pick eighth in the draft’s first round, hardly a guarantee they’ll get a top QB prospect. Per OverTheCap, Atlanta has more than $56 million available, second most in the league. Carr won’t be confused with Lamar Jackson or Justin Fields. But he is relatively mobile and his game is perhaps similar enough to Ryan Tannehill’s that Falcons coach Arthur Smith, previously the Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator, could employ him to a higher degree of efficacy than Marcus Mariota or rookie Desmond Ridder achieved in 2022.
► Carolina Panthers: They’ll select one spot after Atlanta in Round 1 of this year’s draft and don’t currently have any cap space to accommodate a starting quarterback’s salary. But with Sam Darnold no longer under contract and Baker Mayfield long gone, a team that needed to upgrade under center anyway also must obtain someone to play the position in 2023 and beyond for new coach Frank Reich.
► New Orleans Saints: They hosted Carr on a visit last week, with the Raiders’ permission, but no trade materialized – per The Athletic, Carr refused to take a pay cut from his current contract. Still, Carr knows coach Dennis Allen, for whom he played in his 2014 rookie year in Oakland. This could still be an option for a team that could use stability under center … though the Saints still need to unscramble their annual salary cap mess.
► New York Jets: Though perhaps average by contemporary NFL quarterbacking standards, Carr would provide a level of performance and stability the Jets haven’t seen probably since Chad Pennington, who wasn’t nearly as durable as Carr has been. The Jets currently have no cap space for 2023 but could easily create some, owner Woody Johnson saying he’s ready to spend on a quarterback acquisition if need be. However, it’s worth wondering if the Jets will bide their time given they’ve been widely linked to Aaron Rodgers, whom they could not officially acquire before March 15.
► San Francisco 49ers: They’re in a weird spot (again), coming off an NFC championship game loss that left rookie QB Brock Purdy with a torn UCL. Trey Lance, the No. 3 pick of the 2021 draft, is still recovering from a broken ankle and hasn’t played enough in recent years to prove he’s actually the future face of the franchise. A return to the Bay Area might be a high upside move for Carr, assuming the Niners like the idea of adding a veteran option as Jimmy Garoppolo prepares to move on. But it would also be a gamble given it’s unlikely Carr would be guaranteed the opportunity to start.
► Tampa Bay Buccaneers: The cap situation for the reigning NFC South champs is in shambles, but that doesn’t change the fact they’ll likely want an option aside from Kyle Trask to replace retired Tom Brady.
► Washington Commanders: They historically love known commodities. Also, coach Ron Rivera admitted during the season that the quarterback position was holding this team back – a comment he later walked back despite the truth in it, not to mention Rivera’s own culpability. Carr is essentially a baseline among NFL passers – think Kirk Cousins, Garoppolo and the like. He’s an incremental step up from Carson Wentz and Taylor Heinicke and could upgrade the only NFC East team to miss the playoffs in 2022. Rivera’s been touting 2022 rookie Sam Howell lately, but we’ll see if Washington really sticks with him.
What has Derek Carr’s camp said?
Not a whole lot, though he largely embraced his inclusion in the Pro Bowl Games.
“I’m just being patient. I’m going to do what’s best for myself. I’m going to do what’s best for my family. And (I) don’t care what the optics are or anything like that. I can pick this or do that, it’s kind of fun to be able to do whatever you want for once,” he told NFL Media.
“(I want to play for) a team that’s all in on winning the Super Bowl. I think that, to me, I just want to win. I’ve thrown for the numbers. Been to the Pro Bowls. … For me, I’m just looking for a team that has the pieces, and if I was to add to anything that I could add, hopefully we could be one of those teams to try and go do that.”
During his social media goodbye in January, Carr wrote: “I once said that if I’m not a Raider I would rather be at home and I meant that, but I never envisioned it ending this way.
“That fire burning inside of me to win a championship still rages. A fire no man can extinguish; only God. So I look forward to a new city and a new team who, no matter the circumstance, will get everything I have. Winning a championship is what I’ve always wanted and what I will continue to work towards.”
His brother, former NFL quarterback and current NFL Network analyst David Carr, was less forgiving following Derek’s benching by the Raiders.
“Derek Carr, he’s said for a long time that, ‘I’m only going to play for the Raiders – it’s going to be Raiders or no one else.’ So that’s loyalty,” David Carr said on “NFL Total Access” on Jan. 2.
“So he was fully invested: Six head coaches, Khalil Mack gets traded, Amari Cooper’s shipped off, Jon Gruden gets fired at midseason – he’s going through all this turmoil, right? He never called out a coach, never called out the organization, never called out the top brass in the organization, never said anything. … All he did was go out and be the all-time leading passer in the history of the Raiders.
“It wasn’t Derek that changed, right? It was the Raiders that changed. So, when I go forward with Derek, that conversation about him being retired a Raider is no longer an option. He’s playing football again. He’s reinvigorated, he’s excited to go out (elsewhere).
“And he’s going to look for teams that have a stable situation between their head coach and their ownership. Stable. He’s also going to be looking for a team that is also looking for a quarterback that has a reputation for game-winning drives and fourth-quarterback comebacks. I’m excited, maybe he’s the missing piece for someone. We’ll see what happens, I’m excited for my brother’s future.”
What does Derek Carr’s exit mean for the Raiders?
His departure means Las Vegas picks up an additional $29 million in cap space, giving Ziegler and McDaniels among the most spending power in the league heading into free agency. The Raiders, who pick seventh overall in the draft, could target a quarterback at that spot. But that pick plus their cap resources also make them a logical suitor for Aaron Rodgers – and they’re only a year removed from doing a deal with the Green Bay Packers for All-Pro WR Davante Adams.
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Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis.
