NFL hot seat: 5 quarterbacks under pressure to deliver in 2020
By Peter Panacy
NFL Hot Seat No. 2: Derek Carr, Oakland Raiders
A little over a year ago at this time, Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr was a prime candidate for the NFL hot seat. Head coach Jon Gruden taking over the franchise in 2018 put a big question mark on Carr’s future, and each of the subsequent NFL Draft classes created speculation Gruden would want to get “his guy” under center instead of Carr.
Few would argue Carr has been the same since that magical 2017 Pro Bowl campaign leading up to his late season-ending injury. Carr has regressed since that point, although his 70.4 completion percentage and 100.8 passer rating from last year suggests he’s trending in the right direction once more.
“We’ll see when that time comes,” Carr told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Scott Bair towards the end of the 2019 season. “You’re probably sick of talking about it just like I am. I had some good meetings with my coaches.”
Yet Carr’s future is back into the questionable category on the NFL hot seat.
For starters, he no longer has any guaranteed money on the five-year, $125 million contract signed back in 2017. And should the Raiders move on from Carr in 2021, they’d do so with merely $2.5 million in dead money against $19.625 million in cap savings.
Carr will need to revert back towards being a Pro Bowl-caliber signal-caller if he wants to avoid any more of those questions about his future.