One of the criticisms that Derek Carr often receives is that he’s a limited passer. Because he isn’t as creative or aggressive as other quarterbacks, especially inside the division, he usually doesn’t get enough credit for what he does well.
What does Carr do well, exactly? First and foremost, he’s incredibly safe with the football. He’s never had a season of more than 13 interceptions and has only thrown 18 interceptions in his last 32 starts. Carr is also among the best quarterbacks in the league in completion percentage, completing 70.4 percent of his passes last season.
But let’s dig even deeper into Carr’s strength. In a recent article by Football Outsiders, they broke down every quarterback’s success by route. Using their Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement (DYAR) metric, Carr finished inside of the top-three in the following routes:
Drags (1st)
Slants (2nd)
Deep Cross (2nd)
Curls (3rd)
In the article, Vincent Verhei breaks down each route and the best and worst passers by route last season. Here is what he had to say about Carr’s ability to win on drag routes during the 2019 season:
Derek Carr quietly had a very good year in 2019, ranking sixth in passing DYAR and eighth in DVOA. That was fueled by his excellence on the drag route, where he produced more value than any other quarterback. Carr completed 25 of his 27 throws on drags, tied with Lamar Jackson for the most completions on this route. One of those incompletions was dropped. Sixteen of those completions picked up first downs, including eight third-down conversions. Hunter Renfrow, Tyrell Williams, and Darren Waller each had 20-plus DYAR on drags.
There are certainly routes in which Carr struggles with as well, such as on digs, outs and on broken plays. But the Raiders have designed an offense around his strengths. In Jon Gruden’s offense, the goal is to get the ball out of Carr’s hands quickly and into the hands of their playmakers.
With the Raiders adding a significant amount of talent to their wide receiver corps this season, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the offense took off in a big way. Players like Henry Ruggs III and Bryan Edwards both win on the same type of routes that Carr thrives and that has to be incredibly exciting for the Raiders’ quarterback.
Look for the Raiders to continue to find ways to put Carr in a position where he can win this season and expect a ton of passes on drags, slants and curl routes this season.
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