The Las Vegas Raiders rather publicly parted ways with quarterback Derek Carr at the end of last season, leading him to join the New Orleans Saints. There is one aspect of his exit from the Raiders that still eats at him, though.
Carr admitted that he was “very upset” that the Raiders opted to bench him for the final two games of the season instead of giving him the chance to say farewell to the fans.
“I was, for lack of a better term, I was very upset; I was mad,” Carr said, via Anthony Galaviz of the Fresno Bee. “You spend nine years in a place, you have all the records and you can play at a high level and for something to get in the way, whether it was whatever reason, money related or whatever, injury related, I would have said I don’t even want the money, just to play two more times in front of our fans. I didn’t get that opportunity. So it definitely lit a fire inside me to keep going.”
The Raiders’ stated reason for the move was the desire to see how the likes of Jarrett Stidham would perform before making a quarterback decision for 2023. That had the effect of essentially isolating Carr, and there were reports at the time suggesting that other members of the Raiders were also unhappy with how the situation was handled.
Carr played 142 games for the Raiders between 2014 and 2022, throwing for 35,222 yards, 217 touchdowns, and 99 interceptions during his career with the team. He finished third in MVP voting in 2016.
There were plenty of hints at the time that Carr was angry over how things unfolded. You can hardly blame him, either. The Raiders were within their rights to decide to move on from him, but they did so in a pretty cold way.
