This offseason has had a lot of grumblings from unhappy quarterbacks around the league. None more newsworthy than the situation that continues to play out between Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.
The reigning MVP is sitting out all offseason activities and he seems set of being traded. Some team is going to bite and land the 37-year-old QB in the hopes he can lead them to a championship in the next few years. And, of course, the Raiders have been among the teams that get mentioned quite a bit as a potential destination.
Las Vegas, of course, has a starting QB. It’s Derek Carr, whose entering his seventh year as the Raiders’ starter. And to hear him tell it, it’s not just the only place he wants to play, it’s the only place he *will* ever play.
“My goal when I got here was to give everything I have to this organization,” said Carr after Tuesday’s minicamp practice.
“I still want more, there’s still more, and I want to do it here. I don’t want to do it anywhere else. I’ve said that over and over again, I’d probably quit football if I had to play for somebody else. I am a Raider for my entire life. I’m going to root for one team for the rest of my life. It’s the Raiders. I just feel that so strong in my heart. I don’t need a perfect situation. I believe that. I don’t need a perfect situation to make things right. I think we can all agree that if we were able to pull it off and win a championship here, that would feel much better than just piling a whole bunch of great players together and joining up and doing it that way. I think it would be much more special. With what we’ve been through to where I think we’re going, I just think personally, that would be a cooler story for my life. For other people, they want to do other things, that’s great, but for me I’d rather go down with the ship if I have to.”
No question, Carr loves the Raiders. Growing up in the Central Valley, the Raiders were basically his local team. They drafted him in the second round in 2014 and named him the starter from day one. They’ve stuck with him despite just one winning season in six years. All that has earned a lot of loyalty from him.
The question is, if the team did move on from him at some point when he still had years left to play football, would he really retire instead of play for someone else? If, say, for the sake of argument, a team like the Packers wanted Carr to be a piece in a trade involving Aaron Rodgers, would Carr refuse to play for the Packers?
It’s an interesting thought.
Derek undoubtedly feels strongly about being a Raider. And it sounds great to say you don’t want to play anywhere else. But at the end of the day, it’s a business. The Raiders will have to start winning with Carr at QB. If he does “go down with the ship,” they will find a new captain and he will have to resurface at another port.
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