Early on in Derek Carr’s career, he was a quarterback with a fantastic touchdown to interception ratio with a high completion percentage. While you would think that means he was a great quarterback, the opposite was actually true.
From the 2014-2018 season, Carr had a passer rating of 88.8, which was actually below league average. Worse yet, he averaged just 6.7 yards per attempt and rarely threw the ball beyond the sticks. From a moment, it did appear like there was a good chance that Jon Gruden could move on from Carr as he simply wasn’t an aggressive enough passer.
However, that changed in 2019 as Carr knew he needed to change up his style of play. Since 2019, only eight quarterbacks have averaged more passing yards per attempt than Carr. Of those eight quarterbacks, only four have a higher passer rating: Ryan Tannehill, Deshaun Watson, Kirk Cousins and Patrick Mahomes.
Here is the full list of yards per attempt since 2019 via SportRadar:
Here are the leaders in yards per passing attempt since 2019: pic.twitter.com/wNGpvQwfqb
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) February 5, 2021
As you can see from above, almost all of the best quarterbacks in the NFL average over 7.5 yards per passing attempt. And until 2019, Carr had never done that once in his career. Now, it’s becoming a trend as he’s found his rhythm in the West Coast offense.
With Carr being a more aggressive quarterback, that has turned the Raiders into one of the better offenses in the NFL. He has managed to be a top-10 quarterback over the last two seasons despite not having a No. 1 receiver and constant turnover at the position.
During the 2020 season, Carr averaged a career-high 8.2 adjusted yards per attempt, which factors in sacks. That is incredibly impressive considering the number of injuries the team had on the offensive line this season.
Under Jon Gruden, Carr has proven to be a high-quality quarterback. If they can continue to improve the offensive line and the weapons around him, there is no reason why Carr can’t be considered a top-seven or eight quarterback with another strong season.
Make no mistake about it, Derek Carr is a franchise quarterback and is playing the best football of his career.
[lawrence-newsletter]