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Former Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr has the chance to prove his doubters wrong this upcoming NFL season. As one of the newest additions to a new-look New Orleans Saints roster, he has all the weapons in place to make some noise this season.
Former NFL wide receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson also seems to believe this is the case, as he took to Twitter this afternoon. He took the time to respond to an NFL post asking fans to predict Derek Carr’s stat line this season with the Saints.
He would go on to respond with the following prediction:
38 td’s
6 int’s
4,700 yds https://t.co/1r8l32ZIgR— Chad Johnson (@ochocinco) June 29, 2023
This prediction is not only one that reflects a positive opinion of Carr, but the belief that there is truly something special brewing in the bayou. Taking these numbers out of context is impressive enough, but let’s take a look at how they look compared to the league leaders last season.
First up, let’s address the passing yards projection. Johnson predicted Carr at 4,700 passing yards, which would have ranked third in the league last year. The only two quarterbacks who surpassed this mark last season were two of the best in the sport, those being Patrick Mahomes (5,250) and Justin Herbert (4,739). This would also nearly surpass Carr’s career high in passing yards, which came in 2021 with 4,804 yards. If he had played in every game this season, he would have been on track for 3,991 yards for reference.
In terms of the interceptions projection, Johnson is predicting that Carr would tie his career low in this statistic. The lowest number of interceptions he has ever thrown in his career in a season was six back in 2016. Since then, he has thrown at least eight every season, with 14 the last two seasons each. Despite this being a very low projection, it is not completely out of the realm of possibility based on his career. In terms of the league, this is predicting Carr among the elite, with Jalen Hurts only throwing six interceptions last season, as well as Lamar Jackson and Kyler Murray throwing seven in limited seasons.
Finally, the passing touchdowns thrown statistic, where Johnson predicted 38 for the New Orleans signal caller. This would surpass the career high for Carr, in which he threw 32 previously in the 2015 season. On average, he typically throws right around 24 passing touchdowns in a season, so this is somewhat of a bold prediction for sure. Among other quarterbacks this season, that would have placed him second behind Patrick Mahomes (41), and three touchdowns above Joe Burrow and Josh Allen who each had 35.
So, overall, is this a bold prediction? Absolutely. However, with the weapons Carr now has in New Orleans, with a quality offensive line to protect him and a top-tier defense to get him the ball back, it is not out of the realm of possibility. Hopefully this does come to fruition, but we will have to wait and see as the season unfolds if this will be the case.
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