Derek Carr Excited to Have Marcus Mariota with the Raiders

Henderson, Nev. -- Derek Carr is confident in himself. Enough so that when the Las Vegas Raiders quarterback learned that they were bringing in former Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota to back him up, he was excited to have him in Las Vegas.

"I knew a lot longer before y'all," Carr said. "Marcus, I've known him since college, we've been … known each other, got mutual friends, teammates, all that kind of stuff. Me and Marcus get along great. We always have. After we play each other we always talked to each other.

"It's weird, we actually broke our ankle like literally on the same day if I'm not mistaken a couple of years ago. It's like weird, crazy things that link you together."

Carr is a competitor. You don't become and top-tier NFL signal-caller by being weak in confidence. For Carr, he is excited to have his friend with him.

"I'll tell you one thing, in our quarterback group you have to compete and that's what I do," Carr said. "Anyone who's around me, all I'm going to do is compete. I've had multiple starters in the NFL come in here and be in the same room as me. You can go through the list about who's started games and who's been in our quarterback room. It happens all the time, but when you go 7-9 people like to make up stuff."

For Carr, 2020 is a season in which he has a full quiver of arrows to fire away at the NFL defense. He isn't concerned about Marcus Mariota. Carr is merely doing what he does best, keeping his eyes down the field, not on his backup.

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