American Football

Raiders GM Confident of Carr Trade Interest

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Las Vegas Raiders v Pittsburgh Steelers
Photo by Gaelen Morse/Getty Images

A lot of fan attention has focused on Aaron Rodgers over the last week or two, but as John mentioned in a recent article, the Carr domino is likely to fall first and based on everything I’ve heard, the Jets are at least “interested”.

The Senior Bowl is a great chance for us to get a good look at some prospects (OSU OT Dawand Jones and Minnesota center John Michael Schmitz have jumped out to me), but it’s also a good time for GMs to get together and discuss trades. Raiders GM Dave Ziegler is in Mobile, as is Joe Douglas.

Ziegler was asked about the Derek Carr situation, with the Raiders expected to trade the former franchise guy by the 15th of February, or at least try to. $40 million becomes guaranteed on the Carr contract on that date and with both sides admitting to moving on, a resolution needs to happen by Valentines, or the Raiders may be forced to release him.

“I think here this week at the Senior Bowl, obviously everybody’s here. This is a good time to have those conversations,” Ziegler said Thursday in an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio. “There’s going to be people interested in Derek Carr. There’s no doubt about that. He’s been a good football player in this league for quite some time. Like I said, he’s a phenomenal human being, and we’ll kind of see where it goes.”

One thing that does complicate the situation is the no-trade clause that the Raiders handed Carr with his extension. That means that Carr is in full control of his next destination and some have wondered whether he would be open to playing in New York. I’ve contacted Carr’s agent on three separate occasions to try and get an answer to that question, but those messages have gone unanswered.

Carr was back in Vegas this week to take part in the Pro Bowl. It’s ironic that he’s taking part in an all-star game in the same city he was benched in, but life has a funny way of springing these moments. He even put on a show last night, winning the precision passing competition with an outstanding show of accuracy.

When asked about his situation, Carr said:

“I have a no-trade clause,” Carr told NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe at the Pro Bowl Games. “And there’s a date that certain money is guaranteed or I’m a free agent. So, I’m just gonna be honest about the whole thing. There has been conversations with Dave (Ziegler) and my agent and me. We’ll figure that out. But for me, I’m just being patient. I’m going to do what’s best for myself. I’m going to do what’s best for my family. And (I) don’t care what the optics are or anything like that. I can pick this or do that, it’s kind of fun to be able to do whatever you want for once.”

I’ve been pretty open in my belief that I think Derek Carr would be a good QB for the Jets with the team having the ability to grow with him over the coming years, but that doesn’t mean that Carr wants the Jets. He was born in California, played college ball in California, and has been playing in Oakland and Vegas, both on the west coast…would he really want to uproot his family and move to NJ?

I don’t think the Raiders will get a lot of trade compensation, if any, for Carr, but if he is willing to play on the east coast and you can get him for a mid-round pick, then that makes a lot of sense, considering it will allow you to invest that early draft capitol to fortify the rest of the roster.

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