A whole lot of veteran quarterbacks are on the bubble.
Philip Rivers will be on the move after 16 seasons with the Chargers. Tom Brady could very well be on the move after 20 years with the Patriots. Dak Prescott, Jameis Winston, Ryan Tannehill, and Teddy Bridgewater are among the quarterbacks set to be free agents if they’re not either signed or tagged by their current teams. And in some cases, quarterbacks who are signed to contracts don’t seem to have the full support of their current franchises.
For the Raiders, who are moving to Las Vegas this season, I was told that while most operations are still based in Oakland for the time being, change could be coming — and not just geographically. Rumors started late last season about a “significant disconnect” between head coach Jon Gruden and Derek Carr, and Gruden has been known to be brutally exacting with his quarterbacks. Gruden has said nothing to assure Carr of anything, despite a season in which Carr moved over the 100 mark in passer rating for the first time in his career.
Gruden didn’t speak at the combine, but general manager Mike Mayock did, and his thoughts on Carr seemed to waver.
“I’m surprised it took two questions to get to Derek, but thank you. The bottom line is this. Everybody needs to understand at what level Derek Carr played last year, okay? The guy completed 70% of his passes, he had almost a 3-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio. I think we were No. 11 in the league in total yards, we were seventh in third down conversions. We did a lot of really good things on offense last year. The disconnect was, we didn’t score a lot of points. You’re 11th in yards, and 24th in points, there’s an issue. It’s defense, it’s special teams, it’s not scoring in the red zone, and it’s not scoring in goal-to-goal. To me, those are the issues. Derek Carr played at a high level. I’m very happy with Derek Carr. What I’ve told everybody I’ve been in touch with since the day I took this job, we’re going to evaluate every position, every year. And if we can get better, we will. I know you guys get tired of me saying that, but that’s really what I told [Raiders owner] Mark Davis before I took the job. That’s really my mantra.”
Not a yes, not a no. Mayock did follow up with “We have a quarterback who runs Jon’s offense at a very high level,” but given Gruden’s historical dissatisfaction with the quarterback he has, and interest in just about every other quarterback, nothing here is guaranteed for Carr. The six-year veteran has a contract that runs through the 2022 season, with a $21.5 million cap hit if he’s on the roster, and a cap savings of $13.6 million if he isn’t.
Meanwhile, Giants GM Dave Gettleman said of 2019 rookie Daniel Jones, “I view Daniel Jones as going into his second year and learning how to be an NFL quarterback.”
Bears head coach Matt Nagy, fresh off bringing in a ton of new coaches to try and bring Mitchell Trubisky to a league-average level, seemed to blame himself for Trubisky’s faults more than anything else. We’ll see how long that lasts. Perhaps not until May, when the Bears have to decide whether to pull the trigger on Trubisky’s fifth-year option. You’re also going to hear a lot of talk about Chicago trading for a veteran quarterback like Andy Dalton.
And new Panthers head coach Matt Rhule has said that he can’t wait to work with Cam Newton, but that could easily be complicated by Newton’s injury history.
The moral of the story? Unless your team’s quarterback is a young, ascending superstar with years of contract in front of him, don’t get too comfortable with the way things are.