The Oakland Raiders are OTA-ing their brains out this week as the offseason cranks up another level and the return of Jon Gruden inches closer. Of course, the key to Gruden having success in his return to the NFL in 10 years is quarterback Derek Carr. Carr struggled last season after a 2016 campaign in
2018 keys for Derek Carr to be successful
I believe that his brother’s experience in Houston makes Derek very skiddish in the pocket which causes him to get rid of the ball quicker than necessary. He also does not seem to have good instincts to move around in the pocket (last year, that led to him being in a bad position when he hurt his back). You are right, though, the receivers and OLine need to do their jobs to allow DC to be better. While I appreciate DC and think he is a good QB, I worry about some of his skiddishness in the pocket.
On a related note, why won’t Carr throw a hail Mary when the circumstances call for it? Drives me batty! With regard to accuracy, ESPN replayed some of Gruden’s camp with Carr and he said he could make all of the throws and was extremely accurate. I believe him, but fear that he lost a bit of it last year.
Good Points, Michelle.
Carr must also end the bad habit of throwing off his back foot. His mechanics must improve.
One of the main reasons for Carr’s decline last year was the lack of discipline of players catching the ball.
3 players (Crabs, Coop and Cook) made the top 15 list of those who dropped the most balls last year. Two of those are already gone. So another key is for Cooper to hold on to the ball
This is why I think Gruden’s strategy of using the 3rd round pick on Bryant and not a rookie was genius. I believe he’s hedging his bet in case Cooper fails. If Bryant outshines Cooper he’ll most likely be signed and Coop will be sent packing, and if it’s vise-versa then Cooper stays and Bryant is gone.
Either way, he’ll be gaining draft picks on the back-end and break even on the $10-14 million dollars since this is what either of these receivers are going to get paid next year. And if both are equally successful, then it’s Penn who’ll be gone and he’ll still saves 10 Million there too. Brilliant!
Enjoyed this article, Bill – nice to see you bring it out that itisn’t all about the QB.
Has anybody ever actually worked out why Coop has a problem with hanging onto the ball? Physically, when everything is working, he just looks so smooth and effortless but when the drops come they are often on what look, to an armchair fan a few thousand miles away, like really simple throws. Is there a mental relaxation that needs to be ironed out – if so, Coop has played a lot of years for a lot of coaches so it must be pretty deeply ingrained and a tough thing to root out.
Good luck to coach Bennet in dealing with this – it’s obvious but, get rid of the drops and Coop is elite and well worthy of being the #4 pick in his class……
Thanks, Andy. Got to be mental with Cooper at this point. FIxable, though.