Derek Carr Talks Las Vegas Raiders from Training Camp
HENDERSON, Nev.-The Las Vegas Raiders' expectations for a successful 2022 campaign rest on the arm of Derek Carr. The proven quarterback is fine with that as he leads the Silver and Black.
You can watch his entire press conference below, or read the transcript:
Quarterback Derek Carr
Q: Early thoughts on learning a new offense and getting it all together with a bunch of new players?
Carr: “Yeah, I thought we had some good retention from the offseason. I feel like we're stacking days and it's nice being one of the first teams in camp. I love to work, and our team is built that way. We just want to get back to work and to be able to do it with our coaches and them holding us to a standard. It's been great. And so, I'm excited for camp and we're well underway now. Getting our fundamentals back right and all that stuff, so it's been it's been good.”
Q: We saw you run a lap yesterday on an error that's kind of inevitable at this stage of the process. What's that all about?
Carr: “Yeah, just accountability. It doesn't matter whose fault it is, if it happens between two people, hit it. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter whose fault it was. Let's go. It's an accountability thing. It's a learning lesson because we can't beat ourselves. Obviously, yeah, like you said, those things happen, especially early. Young guys, it's different, but it's a great opportunity to say, ‘Hey, now let's work on it. Let's get better.’ So, just having that attitude. You can have a bad attitude about it, or you can just be like,’ Hey, we got to grow from it and get better.’ I think that's something that is one of the philosophies around here, is that we're all in this thing together, and that's what we're going to do.”
Q: It looks like there is a lot of player coaching going on the field as well, a lot of communication with you and the wide receivers, offensive line and so forth. Are you seeing that as well?
Carr: “Yes, I think one thing that's been really cool is we're taking a new system and with the retention and with the hard work that everyone put in the offseason, now we're at a place where we're not just like everyone's quiet and just listening. Is that right? We all feel confident enough to be like, ‘Alright, hey, now when you see it this way, we can talk.’ And you see a lot of the older players or players who played more just helping the younger guys like, ‘Hey, I'm doing it like this because of this reason. Because this team does this or things like that.’ So, yeah, those are good signs. It doesn't equal wins, but those are good signs that you'll have a good group.”
Q: How was it having (UNLV Head Coach) Marcus Arroyo out there at practice today?
Carr: “I love Marcus. I've known Marcus for a long time. I knew him before this, but even when I was coming out, he was in Tampa with Teddy (Jeff Tedford) and I remember going out on draft visit and it was basically like hanging out with some family. I was in their room; they were installing their OTA stuff and I was literally just hanging out with him. I’ve known him for a while, so him and I have kept in contact throughout the years, and I do root for him except for obvious reasons. But yeah, he's a really good guy. And then Nick [Holz] is over there, so we got to talk about Nick and how much we love him. It has been cool.
Q: How important is accountability with this regime and how are seeing everyone buying into that?
Carr: “Yeah, we are and if Davante or Darren or Maxx, Hunter, if they if they don't do it then it's not a team game. But that's not how we look at it. Everyone talks about a certain handful of guys, and this is going to take a team effort to do what we want to do. And so, for us, learning from mistakes. Maybe we used to feel this way about a certain situation, but now it's, ‘Hey, this is a team thing. If I screwed up, if you screw up, it really doesn't matter. We're in this thing together.’ And I think what you're going to start seeing, and what we started seeing in the offseason, if someone messed up, someone would join them. You'd start to see guys join them and talk to him on the way, ‘Hey, we got to clean this up. We're going to help you all.’ And that's what really helps teams, and it doesn't mean you're going to win everything, but it brings your team closer, which helps lead to those things.”
Q: How has the conversation amongst veterans gone at practice?
Carr: “I think that conversation just gets shorter. Like when I say, ‘Hey, versus this and this and this.’ I don't have to explain what this and this and this means. I can just say, ‘Hey, versus this and this, I want you to do it like this. Boom. Got it. Okay, thanks.’ So, we can move faster. We can try and get on the same page quicker, especially in a new system, trying to do it that way.”
Q: Does it feel like a more veteran team?
Carr: “Um, I don't know like the ages and all that kind of stuff, but I feel like that people know football. I think one thing Dave [Ziegler] and Josh have done is like they really care about smart football players, especially in the systems that we play in. You got to be super smart. It’s not just run out there and just be better athletically or something like that. It helps if you are, but you got to be smart. I think it really helps when they communicate something that they can take it and then go do it from the meeting room to the field.”
Q: Do you remember when you and Davante Adams first met or even played together? And what was your first impression?
Carr: “I’m trying to think of the actual day. He may know easier than me. He's younger than me. He may remember that day. I remember the first moment like on the football field. Obviously, I remember talking to him a couple of times before that, but on the football field when he ran a certain route, and I went to (former Fresno State Head Coach) Pat Hill. I was like he’s not going to be here five years. I remember saying that we don't need to redshirt him, let him play. And Pat was like, ‘No, no, no, no. I'm going to let him grow,’ which it ended up working out for him obviously. I just remember that moment I would throw the routes to my guys that were playing in the game and then I would tell Davante to go just to build that chemistry before we got to play because you could just see that he was a special talent for sure.”
Q: How cool is it to see him now be this special talent? Do you feel more pressure now or do you feel like you have a friend on the field?
Carr: “Oh, no, I mean, there's pressure in our business all the time. But hopefully it's from what you put on yourself. You push yourself to be better and learn more. (Davante) has got some guys around him that have executed at a high level statistically and maybe it'll free some things up for him, maybe it won't. I don't know, but there's no pressure. All the guys in there are so unselfish. I walked into a conversation with him and Hunter and Darren, all these guys are talking about, ‘I don't care about this. I don't care about this, let's just win.’ Like they don't care. Two of them are going off, why is he not? That's how it usually works. And so, to us, we're just trying to figure out a way to get better and to win football games.”
Q: You talked about your dad being a big inspiration in your life. Can you kind of elaborate a little bit on what that faith does for you in the offseason and then heading into football season is does it change at all?
Carr: “No, I try and be the same person. I try and be positive. Some people make it easier than others, but that's just part of it. I'm talking about in life in general for everybody. Some days is easier, some days it’s harder, but no one's perfect. Like, we're all trying our best and I had a great role model in my dad to watch and the way that he loved my mom, the way that he loved my brothers and me, and he's not a perfect man by any stretch. He'd be the first one to tell you that he didn't do everything perfectly, but I had a good role model in him to show me what it's supposed to look like as a husband and as a dad, and as a person. He said, when you go into your workplace, it shouldn't change. Like, your wife should know the same person at the workplace and the same person at home. I just try and be that way. And as I've gotten older, I've gotten more comfortable in that. Just being the same person. And it's hard. It's not easy, but you just try and do it. But like you said, I had a great role model in my dad to show me.”
Q: For the first time in a few years, you have a totally different quarterback room. What stands out about each guy in that room?
Carr: “ “Obviously they're very talented guys, and they work extremely hard. One thing is that they all get along, they all know we're all competing. We're all trying to fight to be the best quarterbacks we can be every day, but we also celebrate one another when it goes well. And I think that that's really cool. I've been around sometimes where that's not the case, where I would sit and watch maybe a little strife and things like that. And that's just usually not healthy. for the locker room. Quarterbacks, as long as we're like this, it's good for the team. And those guys have all been that way and they can all throw it. They've all shown that they can complete passes and do those things, so it's cool.”
Q: Who has really stood out to you among those new guys in the wide receiver room?
Carr: “Yeah, I think they've all flashed like the talent that they possess and the reason that they're in the NFL. I’ll say one thing, is that they all put their head down and work. They don't say much. I've been around some more expressive groups. I've been around some quieter groups. And these guys, they're all ball. It's all football and they're very professional about their business. The whole room is and a lot of guys that may not even get talked about that have flashed and you're like, “Wow.’ Obviously, we got good GM and head coach that have found talent and they've brought them in to compete against each other. All those guys, they're all flashing talent and they're all showing those things. So, it'll be it'll be a fun thing to watch as camp goes on for sure.”
Q: How much have you seen the growth of the offensive line since the end of last year to where it's at right now?
Carr: “Yeah, obviously they're getting better. It’s a different scheme, so there's growing pains through the offseason of this technique or this how you want me to do this, and you watch that, but I mean you can definitely tell that they're getting better. That whole room is working hard. I mean, when the second line challenges the first line, they're all interchanging. They're all working together, and you know how the league has been with linemen injuries and you never know who has to play where. We’ve had two right tackles and guard goes to tackle and you still got to win the game. Coach Carmen [Bricillo] and Cam [Clemmons], they've done such an excellent job just pushing those guys in there. You see their growth; you see them getting better. Which again, doesn't mean anything yet, but you can tell that they're working at it and it's still early. We got a lot of time before our first regular season game, so we'll see what happens then.”
Q: Last year was such a roller coaster season on and off the field, I'm wondering with this whole new reboot, the new team president, new coaches, do you get a sense as the new stability will affect the product on the field?
Carr: “I don't know. I mean, we all hope so, right? You hope like you get better. But last year was like such a different situation, different coaches, different GM, different philosophies. And now, we're into a new year and it's nice that it's just been all football. For the most part, every time I've gotten up here, we just were talking football, and that's what we want to get to anyway. We got our new president. I talked to her as soon as she got the job. I was in Tahoe. I talked to her on the phone and texted her and had a great conversation. And she talked to the team and got to meet her that way. It's been awesome and you can definitely tell that Mr. Davis, he's doing everything he can to just push us in the right direction. And it's been cool because he's just trying to make it all football and it's our job as players and as coaches to limit distractions. There's no like secret formula to it, we’re going to come in here and we got to be attentive in the meetings, we got to take what we got and go out there and hopefully by doing that, you go home, and you have the right guys that you eliminate distractions from choices that you make when you leave.”
Q: I think there was a time last year you might have even said that you woke up and would say, ‘What’s going to happen today?’ Are you past that? Like, are you waking up and saying, ‘Alright, today is a good day?’
Carr: “Yeah. I think we've had a good amount of time since all that went down. I told you all, I couldn't even like comprehend it at the time. I'm a human person. Like I didn't get a chance really to feel all those emotions and after the season like one day it just hits you like, ‘Wow, dang.’ Moreso the life transformations for families and the life loss and the careers that are done and all that stuff. The real-life part of it hit you because it was so, as y'all know, like it happened, but we were right back here to play. And so, there's so much in your mind football wise that you even didn't really get to comprehend at all. If I'm honest, after the season I had a couple of those days where you think about it you, really in the summer and things like that, but then since football and we've been talking and just grinding on the playbook and that it's just been all football and that's been nice. We stand up here. All the questions are bout football, this player, the scheme, the coach. It’s not like, how do you handle this? Like the hardest questions when we were moving to Las Vegas, and we were still a year or two in Oakland. I’d stand up here and have to answer those questions. Hopefully that stuff is just behind us.”
Q: Entering your ninth season in the league, is there one thing that stands out so far that makes this team different?
Carr: “It’s so early.
Again, when you're learning a new playbook, it's not like you have like that sixth sense of what's going on with each person in the offseason, but now as we're kind of in it. It’s so early, but all I can say is that this is a close group and that is evident from offense, defense, special teams. That is evident and it’s evident that, again, everyone's coming in with the right mindset, and that's going to give us a chance. It's not going to promise us anything, but it will give us a chance to be competitive and try and win football games.”
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