Derek Carr Hopes to Give Raiders a Bit of Snake
Derek Carr has flashed his inner Kenny Stabler at times during his six-year pro career, especially when he has driven the Raiders down the field to game-winning scores during the final minutes 18 times.
Carr was right up front with it the other day when he wore a Stabler jersey onto the practice field during training camp in Las Vegas.
In a Twitter post that was pounced on by members of Raider Nation, Carr posted a picture showing him in the red quarterback’s practice jersey along with a caption that read: “Honoring the Goat.”
The jersey bore Snake’s No. 12 and had Stabler’s name on the back.
Stabler, in 1968 out of Alabama, and Carr, in 2014 from Fresno State, both were second-round draft choices of the Raiders and played at nearly the same in size—Snake listed at 6-foot-3 215 pounds and Carr at 6-3 and 210.
Other than that their careers with the Silver and Black have been very different, and not only because Carr is right-handed and Hall of Famer Stabler might have been the best left-handed quarterback in NFL history.
“I like what I have seen of Carr so far,” Stabler told this reporter during Carr’s rookie season of 2014. “I like the way he stands in the pocket and makes his reads before throwing the ball. But I hope the Raiders get him some help because I have seen him take some big hits doing that.
“If they get him some more tools, he could do big things for them down the road.”
Carr was thrown right into the starting lineup as a rookie, while Stabler was frustrated by sitting behind quarterbacks Daryle Lamonica and George Blanda until he became the full-time starter in 1973.
Of course, when Stabler got his chance, he was surrounded by Hall of Famers Art Shell and Gene Upshaw and Art Shell on an outstanding front line, plus tight end Dave Casper and wide receivers Fred Biletnikoff and Cliff Branch, who like the four other should be enshrined in Canton.
Those Raiders made the playoffs for six consecutive years and routed the Minnesota Vikings, 32-14, in Super Bowl XI at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena thanks to a masterfully choreographed offense led by Stabler, who virtually called all the plays.
The only season Carr, who last season broke Stabler’s franchise record for career passing yards, has had to brag about came when the Raiders went 12-4 and a earned playoff spot in 2016--with Carr leading the Raiders to seven comeback victories in the fourth quarter.
However, Carr sustained a broken leg in the next-to-last game of the regular season, and without him, the Raiders lost in the first round of the playoffs.
Now, the Raiders have built perhaps the best offensive line in football to protect Carr, led by center Rodney Hudson and right tackle Trent Brown, both voted to the Pro Bowl last season.
Running back Josh Jacobs broke the Raiders’ rookie rushing record set by Marcus Allen last season and tight end Darren Waller became a star as Carr’s favorite receiver. Speedy wide receiver Henry Ruggs III was drafted out of Alabama to go with Tyrell Williams and Hunter Renfrow, adding to Carr’s receiving corps.
“I’m trying to play in the Super Bowl,” Carr said recently, again showing his inner Stabler. “I’m trying to win the Super Bowl.”
The Raiders also have made improvements on defense, so their first year in Las Vegas hopefully will remind fans of those seasons in Oakland under Stabler.
Of course, the onus falls on Carr.
“There’s no more excuses for Derek," Lincoln Kennedy, an All-Pro tackle for the Raiders during his career who now works for the team, said recently in a radio interview on The Zach Gelb Show. “Now, it’s either put up or shut up. He’s got all the weapons in front of him. He’s got an offensive line, he’s got a run game, he’s got a receiving corps. There’s really nothing else that he shouldn’t be able to do with this offense.”
What Kennedy got wrong is that Carr, like Stabler, never makes excuses.
A writer from Sports Illustrated came to Oakland in 1979 looking for a story when the Raiders went 9-7 and missed the playoffs in Stabler’s last season in with the Raiders.
“What happened to your team this season; I heard there were problems in the locker room,” he said as Stabler dressed in the locker room at the Oakland Coliseum after the season finale.
Said Snake: “I’m not saying there was or wasn’t, but what happens in this room stays here. I’m the quarterback, so blame me.”
Carr has done and said much the same, but now he might have the tools to match some of the Snake’s accomplishments.
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