Derek Carr is happy to be the new quarterback of the New Orleans Saints but had to get some things off his chest about his former team, the Las Vegas Raiders. The 32-year-old quarterback recently spoke to The Fresno Bee about his time with the Raiders and how he was not happy with how things ended.
“I was, for lack of a better term, I was very upset; I was mad,” Carr said, per CBS Sports. “You spend nine years in a place, you have all the records and you can play at a high level, and for something to get in the way, whether it was whatever reason, money related or whatever, injury-related, I would have said I don’t even want the money, just to play two more times in front of our fans. I didn’t get that opportunity. So, it definitely lit a fire inside me to keep going.”
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Carr finished the 2022 season in Las Vegas with 3,522 yards, 24 touchdowns and 14 interceptions with an 86.3 passer rating. He only completed 60.8 percent of his passes and posted a 6-9 record in 15 starts. Before the season came to an end, the Raiders benched Carr for Jarrett Stidham, leading to Carr stepping away from the team for the final two games of the season. At that time, Carr knew his time with the Raiders was up, and The Fresno Bee asked if he would have let bygones be bygones if the Raiders decided to keep him.
“Once they made my wife cry, that was pretty much over,” Carr said. “Once they made her cry, that was out. But the love for my teammates is what probably would have made me do it. But the way it worked out and the timing of things, I was just … it was time for me to move on. But who knows? You never know what will happen.”
Carr was selected by the Raiders in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft. He became the team’s starting QB that season and finished his time with the franchise with 35,222 yards, 217 touchdowns and 63 wins. Carr has been named to the Pro Bowl four times, including this past season. He signed a four-year contract worth $150 million with the Saints in March.
