Derek Carr’s brother reveals new details about Raiders’ breakup with their veteran quarterback

After nine seasons with the Raiders, Derek Carr’s time in Las Vegas finally came to an end last week when he was unceremoniously dumped on Valentine’s Day by his long-time team. 

The fact that Carr got released wasn’t all that surprising. Not only did he get benched toward the end of the season, but he was also going to be owed $40.4 million in guaranteed money if he was still on the roster by Feb. 15 and the Raiders simply weren’t going to allow that to happen. 

Although Carr hasn’t had much to say about how things ended with the Raiders, his brother, David, did reveal a few details during a recent episode of “NFL Total Access.” According to David, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft, things fell apart in Las Vegas because Derek and Josh McDaniels weren’t on the same page with how the offense should be run. 

“It’s been a tough scenario,” David said. “I think the biggest thing for Derek is, why it didn’t work out with the Las Vegas Raiders —  he was excited at the beginning [with] Josh McDaniels — but there was just a difference of opinion as far as how to run offensive football and how to play offensive football. When you’re a veteran quarterback, you’ve got veteran guys, they want some control at the line of scrimmage, they want to be able to utilize their superpower.”

It sounds like Derek would have preferred to have the power to change plays at the line of scrimmage, but McDaniels wasn’t willing to make that part of the offense. 

“He wants to get to the line, decipher what the defense is doing, get in an appropriate play and that skill wasn’t utilized in Las Vegas under Josh McDaniels,” David said. “And that’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Although Derek is now leaving the Raiders after nine seasons, David says there’s no animosity. 

“Derek and Josh, they had a good conversation [on Feb. 14], they parted ways,” David said. “Josh is going to do his thing, he’ll find a quarterback who fits his system and Derek will go find a system that fits his style, so it’ll be good.”

David also pointed out that Derek is now excited about the fact that for the first time in his career, he gets to pick the team he’s going to play for. 

“He has a chance to hand-pick the next team that he goes to,” David said. “He’ll have a lot of options. He has some criteria that he’s looking at, that I’m going to help him walk through, but he’s a smart guy, he knows what he wants, he’s very focused on making the right decision for his family and for his future. He still wants to play some good football.” 

Derek has already visited with the Jets, and up next, it wouldn’t be surprising if he took a three-team tour of the NFC South with the Saints, Panthers and Buccaneers all in need of a quarterback.