Washington Football Team: Exploring every potential quarterback trade target
QB Derek Carr, Raiders
Jon Gruden is entering his fourth year in charge of the Raiders. In his three seasons since returning to coaching, he has posted a 19-29 record and has yet to make the playoffs. Needless to say, that’s not exactly what he envisioned happening when he decided to come out of the broadcast booth.
In 2020, Las Vegas was in the playoff hunt until their last-second loss against the Miami Dolphins in Week 16. They finished with a solid 8-8 record, but obviously, Gruden will want more from his team, especially as they become more firmly entrenched in the Vegas entertainment scene.
The obvious area for improvement there is on the defensive side of the ball, and that’s a big part of the reason that the team fired Paul Guenther late in the season. But if the team wants to shake things up on offense, they could try to roll with a younger or more mobile quarterback to take control of the offense.
If that happens, Derek Carr could be on the move. Carr has been the epitome of solid for the Raiders over the years. He looked like a potential MVP candidate in 2016 before a broken leg knocked him out in the late stages of the season and rendered him absent for the playoffs, too. Since then, Carr hasn’t quite reached that peak, but he has been an accurate passer.
Over the last three seasons, Carr has posted a 68.9 percent completion rate and has put together four consecutive 4,000-yard seasons. Carr held a 3-1 TD-INT ratio in 2020 and has thrown 10 or fewer interceptions in four of the last five seasons.
Carr isn’t flashy, but he can make every throw he needs to in order to be a quality quarterback. He’s not afraid to take chances downfield even if they don’t always work out. He’s very efficient on third down. And the two years remaining on his contract carry cap hits of $22.2 million or less. That puts him on the affordable end of the quarterback spectrum.
Carr would certainly be an upgrade for Washington, as he can play like a top-15 quarterback even though he’s not a huge playmaker. What he is is durable, accurate, and solid. If he is made available at the right price, Washington should at least think about making a move to get him.
That said, of the quarterbacks on this list, Carr is probably one of the least likely to be traded. Gruden seems to like him and given that the Raiders are picking 17th overall, they probably won’t land a passer that Gruden would consider an upgrade over Carr.