The Las Vegas Raiders have made it clear that they don’t want Derek Carr to be their quarterback anymore. However, one ESPN analyst thinks that there are many other NFL teams who will jump at the chance to sign him in the offseason.
Wednesday, the Raiders announced they were benching Carr, less than a year after signing him to a three-year contract extension worth $121.5 million. The assumption that Carr’s time with the Raiders was over was basically confirmed when he decided to leave the team rather than be a distraction. The question now is who Vegas will trade Carr to during the offseason and where he would like to end up, given that he has a no-trade clause in his contract.
“I do have some good news for Derek Carr…he’s probably gonna end up with a better team next year,” said Mina Kimes during Thursday’s NFL Live on ESPN. “He also has that no-trade clause, so he has some discretion. I do think that he’ll be a hot ticket on the trade market for a couple of reasons. It’s not an excessive contract. Next year when he’s traded, it’ll be about $33 million. The acquiring team could cut him after that…
“I do also think there’s a lot of teams out there that need quarterbacks that are otherwise pretty solid. When you start looking across the league at the Jets, the Commanders, of course, we always talk about the Colts. Potentially the Falcons. There’s a lot of options for Derek Carr and there aren’t a lot of other quarterbacks in the market. Maybe Tom Brady, if he decides not to return to the Bucs. Jimmy Garoppolo, of course, will be a free agent. But assuming Lamar Jackson returns to Baltimore, I have to think Derek Carr is going to be a target for a lot of those teams and I think he’ll be happy to land with some of them.”
Derek Carr may be the "hot ticket" of the offseason 📈
"There's a lot of options for Derek Carr and there aren't a lot of other QBs in the market." — @minakimes pic.twitter.com/VgpABCl7NB
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) December 29, 2022
