Derek Carr to Bears Merely a Figment of QB's Keyboard
Derek Carr has only been trolling and it was fairly obvious from the start.
First came unsubstantiated reports the Bears "would be interested" if the Raiders made Carr available for trade, then came the use of Instagram.
Except, it wasn't just to the Bears, but also to the Colts.
Carr sent out an Instagram message with a photo of himself and former teammate Khalil Mack, but also sent one out with himself playing against the Colts.
The Colts are looking around at the quarterback market probably to a greater extent than the Bears.
Obviously Carr is simply trying to show his dissatisfaction with the way the Las Vegas Raiders and coach Jon Gruden in particular are treating him. It doesn't mean he's headed to the Colts or Bears in any way.
Carr's brother David, the former Texans quarterback, admitted as much on NFL Network. He said his brother is just "trolling" in a manner of speaking.
"His son's favorite movie is Trolls. He's just having fun. It's the offseason," David Carr said.
Last year rumors were all around about Carr's future being elsewhere, but Gruden and Raiders GM Mike Mayock stayed behind him.
With two first-round draft picks and three in the third round, Oakland is sitting in a good spot to be able to draft a young quarterback for Gruden to groom while they still have Carr. It actually sets up in the way many teams would desire.
So rather than take a big salary cap hit from trading Carr, keeping him until the new quarterback is ready only makes sense.
The wild card in this scenario is Gruden's interest in acquiring Tom Brady, which seems another unlikely situation. If they did, well then Carr would and should be available.
The Bears have improved their salary cap space from about $13.3 million to $26.3 million with their Friday moves to cut Prince Amukamara and Taylor Gabriel.
While it looks like they could pull off a move of this type, they would be taking on Carr's salary of $18.9 million.
So much for the salary cap benefits.
They also have to sign an inside linebacker, preferably one of their two free agents, Danny Trevathan or Nick Kwiatkoski. They also have to sign a safety. Both Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and backup Deon Bush are free agents. And then they need money to sign draft picks. Unless they're going with untested Kevin Toliver II or a draft pick at cornerback, they might need to sign a replacement for Amukamara.
And would Carr even be a better choice than Andy Dalton or Case Keenum or Marcus Mariota to come in and backup Trubisky or be his replacement, anyway?
His record as a starter with the Raiders is 39-55. His stats are generally better than those other passers, but only after the last two years under Gruden. In his first four seasons his stats weren't as good as Trubisky's have been in his first three.
Now that the trolling has been outed Bears fans can go on to something more constructive, like watching for tweets from just about every other quarterback trying to get to Chicago and go up against Trubisky.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
