There are two reasons for Derek Carr’s improvement as a passer this season. The first being that he has become a far more aggressive passer. Carr is taking more deep shots down the field and that is opening up the rest of the offense. With speedsters Henry Ruggs and Nelson Agholor, defenses have to cover nearly every blade of grass on the field, opening up the run game and passing targets such as Hunter Renfrow and Darren Waller.
The second way in which Carr has improved has been on third down. Through nine games, he has a passer rating of 113 on third down as he is averaging nearly 10 yards per attempt.
According to Pro Football Focus, he is the site’s second-highest graded quarterback on third down this season, only behind Aaron Rodgers:
Highest passing grade on 3rd down
1. Aaron Rodgers – 87.3
2. Derek Carr – 87.2
3. Ben Roethlisberger – 81.7
4. Tom Brady – 80.1 pic.twitter.com/MmhQVAZcHL— PFF (@PFF) November 18, 2020
Third down is the money down in the NFL as it can make or break a quarterback’s career. If you can’t win on third down, you aren’t going to last very long in the NFL. Luckily for Carr, he’s dramatically improved on third down over the last few seasons. Here are his yards per attempt and passer rating on third down over the last five seasons:
2016 – 6.9 YPA, 90.7 passer rating
2017 – 7.1 YPA, 82.1 passer rating
2018 – 7.1 YPA, 92.6 passer rating
2019 – 9.7 YPA, 127.4 passer rating
2020 – 9.6 YPA, 112.9 passer rating
It’s very evident that Jon Gruden has found a way to unlock Carr over the last two years. No quarterback in the NFL is averaging more yards per attempt on third down since 2019 and the Raiders’ offense is thriving because of it.
If Carr can continue to play at this level for the rest of the 2020 season, they could be a dangerous team come the playoffs. With elite quarterback play and a mauling rushing attack, the Raiders have the right formula to go deep into the tournmanet.
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