thelesterlee
Playing quarterback looks like the most difficult job in the world. Millions upon millions of people are watching you, expecting you to know every single play, get the plays started in 50 seconds and then throw perfect passes into imperfect passing windows while the strongest and fastest humans on Earth attempt to pick you up and slam you through the ground. If you make a mistake, your team loses leading to TV shows, radio stations and podcast networks dedicating an entire week to magnifying and dissecting your mistake repeatedly.
So when you’re outside of the league’s Top 5-8 quarterbacks, your job is typically on the line every week.
Unless you’re Derek Carr who is in his 10th season as a starting quarterback even though he often plays like he’s confused that he’s allowed to be out there.
Derek Carr in a nutshell pic.twitter.com/5gCRaoModb
— The Ballast (@ballastsports) October 20, 2023
In a decade-long NFL career, Derek Carr has led his teams to the playoffs twice. The first time, he broke his leg two weeks before the playoffs started and the second time, was his first-ever chance at postseason football.
They lost.
He led the Raiders to only one scoring drive.
The rest of the game, he looked like he had no business being on the field. He threw an interception and lost a fumble. All he had to do was not give the other team the ball and the Raiders would’ve won. He could not stop himself from giving the other team the ball.
But of course he gave the ball to the other team. He’s a generous, god-fearing man. You can’t read a story about this guy without some mention of his faith or him praying.
I thought maybe that’s why Derek Carr is still a starting quarterback. Even though he is the sole roadblock holding back all of his teams, he’s super religious and perhaps these organizations feel bad cutting ties with him.
He’s a sensitive leader and brings those good church vibes to the building. Especially in Vegas where you’re one night away from desperately needing to repent at church.
However, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
His teammates don’t even really fuck with him like that. He lost the Raiders locker room when they flew to London to play the Seahawks. Derek Carr got sacked and injured his arm. That happens. It’s football. But his teammates said they heard him whimpering and crying on the sidelines.
You cannot lead men into battle while crying in the middle of said battle because the other side is battling too rough.
So it didn’t work out in Vegas. Now, Carr is leading the New Orleans Saints and the squad is 3-4 this season. They are a middling, average ball club while Jameis Winston wastes away on the bench.
Winston has shown he is more than capable of doing what I believe should be the main objective of every NFL quarterback—get the ball in the hands of your talented playmakers. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin were All-Stars when they had Winston throwing him the ball. Godwin in particular had the best season of his career catching passes from Winston.
Derek Carr has the opposite effect on his teammates. Amari Cooper became a star the second he was released from the shackles of a Carr-led offense. Chris Olave is one of the most talented young receivers in the league and it looks like Carr is afraid to throw him the ball.
3rd and 6, Derek Carr checks it down. Chris Olave is wide open for a TD in the slot. These are the type of passes where teammates lose confidence in their QB. pic.twitter.com/NiFAEdq9to
— The Football Scout (@NFLTrenchBattle) October 20, 2023
Yea, I’m sure that was Olave’s fault and not Carr chucking it 30 yards over his head.
Let’s look at the season Carr is having so far and where he ranks amongst his peers:
- 63.9 completion percentage ( 21st)
- 6.3 yards per attempt (27th)
- 228.6 passing yards a game (15th)
- 82.8 passer rating (22nd)
- 48.2 QBR (19th)
He has fewer touchdowns than first-year starter, Jordan Love, his Las Vegas replacement, Jimmy G, and Sam Howell—and I still have no idea if Howell is actually good or not but I know he’s better than Derek Carr already.
So why has Carr managed to maintain his status as a starter despite never winning games and being a below-average performer for the majority of his career?
Why is Derek Carr a starting quarterback?
In 2002, the Houston Texans—a brand new expansive franchise—selected David Carr with the no. 1 overall draft pick. He set an NFL single-season record getting his ass sacked 76 TIMES in his first year. In 5 years with the Texans, David Carr led the league in sacks 3 times.
Carr would become a backup for the next half-decade before retiring after 10 years. David Carr was supposed to be one of the next great top QBs in the league and his career was forever altered by a Texans organization that didn’t have the infrastructure in place to support and protect him.
It is impossible for a quarterback to flourish when the defense is in the backfield powerbombing him as soon as he snaps the ball. David Carr just wanted to have a great job after college and ended up getting beat up every day.
Fast forward 20 years and his brother Derek is out here getting his hand held throughout his career just crying on the sidelines, missing open receivers and throwing the ball into the dirt. Week in and week out, we all watch Carr play football like there are no stakes. He plays like he doesn’t care who wins or loses. He’s just out there literally playing in the grass.
I’m convinced Derek Carr gets to be a starting quarterback because his brother won some sort of secret negligence or worker endangerment lawsuit against the NFL and in order to maintain David Carr’s silence, the league agreed to do whatever it takes to make his brother happy.
We’ve seen the NFL do way shadier shit.
They intentionally used race-based testing to avoid paying retired NFL athletes suffering from brain injuries. The NFL testing assumed black people were born with lower cognitive functions that way the players would always pass dementia/concussion tests because the bar was so fucking low to begin with.
The NFL paid Colin Kaepernick briefcases of cash to go away 1.
Alllllll I’m saying is don’t be shocked when there’s a story about the NFL forcing the Raiders and Saints to start Derek Carr because they made a deal with his brother.
The 2002 Houston Texans tried to murder David Carr and now, for the rest of our lives, we are stuck with his lame-ass brother wearing his lame-ass eye shadow and throwing lame-ass 3-yard dump passes while his receivers are wide-open downfield.
Is Derek Carr the secret beneficiary of a Carr family lawsuit? Leave a comment below. Respond on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Or shoot me an email at Deadseriousmailbag@gmail.com. Let’s chat, bay-beeeee. Let me know if you think Derek Carr is actually good so I can call mental health specialist to your place of residence.
