Derek Carr

Community Tailgate: Derek Carr’s Deal

June 24th, 2017 at 4:42pm CST by Zachary Links

Derek Carr is now the highest-paid player in the NFL…depending on how you look at it. The “new money” average annual value of Carr’s deal gives him $25MM per year, beginning in 2018 when the contract kicks in. That tops Andrew Luck‘s new money yearly average of $24.769MM, giving Carr the mantle by a slim margin of $271K per season. There’s also the matter of cashflow. Luck’s three-year value ($75MM to $67.6MM) and four-year value ($96.125MM to $87.7MM) tops Carr’s. Any way you slice it, Carr probably won’t be at the top for long anyway since Matthew Stafford is on deck for a new deal and the Lions are not hesitant about making him the highest-paid player in the NFL.

When asked about his new contract at a press conference earlier this week, Carr explained that he structured the deal with his teammates in mind. The Raiders will soon begin extension talks with right guard Gabe Jackson, linebacker Khalil Mack, and (perhaps a little further down the line) wide receiver Amari Cooper. The way the deal is designed, Carr said, should help the Raiders keep all of those key pillars for years to come.

When looking at the fine print, Carr’s deal isn’t exactly the market-pushing deal that the initial reports would have led us to believe. There was speculation that Carr would push the Raiders for larger-than-usual guarantees or perhaps even a set percentage of the yearly salary cap to account for the team’s ever-increasing revenue. Neither one of those things happened and Carr didn’t exactly shatter the glass ceiling for top quarterbacks.

Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap estimates that the quarterback market should really be around $27-$30MM by now rather than $25MM. Because a few QBs like Tom Brady accepted team-friendly deals, the going rate for elite signal callers has not increased at the same rate as the salary cap. Carr’s deal will help out the Raiders and his teammates, but it doesn’t necessarily blaze a trail for his fellow quarterbacks.

Do you like Carr’s decision to structure his deal in a way that suits Oakland? Or do you think the youngster should have pushed for more? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.

Derek Carr Discusses Extension

June 24th, 2017 at 10:12am CST by Ben Levine

The Raiders and franchise quarterback Derek Carr finally agreed to an extension this week that’s worth around $25MM per year. The 2014 second-round pick is now signed through the 2022 season, and he’ll presumably earn at least $70MM in guaranteed money ($40MM of that was already guaranteed upon signing the extension).

The 26-year-old met with the media yesterday to discuss his brand-new contract. The Associated Press reviewed his press conference, and we’ve compiled some of the notable soundbites below:

On his negotiations with the Raiders:

“I think that both sides wanted it to get done. It was two family members just figuring out how to get along, and we did. We figured out a way to do it so that we have the opportunity to sign the other guys that I think are important to this organization. That was really important to me, not just to take every single dime that we could.”

On him earning the NFL’s richest contract:

“I think I’ve set a standard for myself, the organization and for this team, personally, that no amount of money is going to matter. It doesn’t matter. You can give me a dollar, you can give me $25 million, it doesn’t matter to me. My goal is that I make sure I give everything I have to this organization. There’s no pressure, there’s no, ‘We’ll be on the 1-yard line and I won’t give it to Marshawn, I’ll throw it.’ None of that stuff. I don’t care about the stats, that’s not my No. 1 objective.”

On his teammates’ reaction to the extension:

“All of my teammates to a man said, ‘Man you work your tail off, you deserve it.’ I don’t feel like I deserve it. But just them saying that grabbed my heart because they’re the ones I go to battle with, they’re the ones I work with every single day. What they have to say really matters to me. I do know I will have to owe them all a big dinner. That will be fun.”

Extra Points: Manning, Fins, Carr, Cousins

June 23rd, 2017 at 9:16pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

In the wake of quarterback Ryan Tannehill‘s season-ending knee injury last December, Dolphins head coach Adam Gase reached out to the retired Peyton Manning about a possible comeback. “It started with Gase,” Peyton’s father, Archie Manning, told Josh Katzenstein of NOLA.com. “He said, ‘Hey 18, Tannehill went down.’ He said, ‘I think he’s going to miss some time. The first question I’m going to get at the press conference in the morning is if I’m going to try to bring you to Miami. What do you want me to tell them?” Peyton Manning was resoundingly successful under Gase when he was Denver’s quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator from 2012-14, but neither a reunion with Gase nor joining a playoff-bound club late in the season could entice the future Hall of Famer to return. Continued Archie Manning: “The text message came back from Peyton, ‘You tell them I could probably come play, but there’s no way I can miss carpool the next two weeks.’ So, he was done.” With Peyton Manning unwilling to come out of retirement, the Dolphins turned to backup QB Matt Moore toward the end of the regular season and in the first round of the playoffs, in which Pittsburgh soundly defeated them.

A few more notes from around the NFL…

At $25MM per year, Raiders quarterback Derek Carr‘s newly signed contract is a record deal in terms of average annual value, but it still doesn’t match up to Colts signal-caller Andrew Luck‘s pact, writes Bill Barnwell of ESPN.com. While Luck is collecting less per season (just over $23MM) on the six-year, $139.1MM extension he inked last summer, he outpaces Carr in terms of both three-year value ($75MM to $67.6MM) and four-year value ($96.125MM to $87.7MM). Those are better gauges than the overall value of a contract, suggests Barnwell, who argues that the last year of a quarterback’s deal is essentially irrelevant. By then, the QB will have either landed a raise, thereby eliminating what was left on the previous contract, or gotten cut.
Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins isn’t going to sign a long-term deal worth less than $52MM over the first two years, contends JP Finlay of CSNMidAtlantic.com. That figure represents the combined totals of the $24MM franchise tag for 2017, which Cousins is slated to play under, and the $28MM transition tag for next year. Even that might not be enough for the Redskins to lock up Cousins by the July 17 deadline, observes Finlay, who’s not particularly optimistic that a deal will come together.
Fourth-year Steelers defensive tackle Daniel McCullers is facing a make-or-break summer, notes Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The 352-pound McCullers is coming off his first 16-game season, but he only played 17.4 percent of defensive snaps, and the Steelers opted against giving him first-team reps in minicamp while starter Javon Hargrave dealt with an injury. When speaking with the team’s official website about McCullers’ status, Steelers defensive line coach John Mitchell didn’t mince words, saying: “Dan McCullers, he’s got to grow up. It’s time to make a move right now. This is going to be his fourth year. And usually in this league, after about four years, you have got to make a move. Or, either, you move somewhere else.”

Derek Carr: Deal Structured To Help Team

June 23rd, 2017 at 1:10pm CST by Zachary Links

Derek Carr‘s new contract is, in some ways, a record-setter. In other ways, it fell a bit short of what the football world figured he would get in an extension. At a Friday morning press conference, Carr explained that his contract is structured specifically so that the Raiders can also work out long-term deals with his best teammates.

“This affords us to do that. We’ll start on that ASAP,” GM Reggie McKenzie said (Twitter link via Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal).

Next up could be an extension for right guard Gabe Jackson. Back in March, McKenzie hinted that a new deal could be on the way for the 25-year-old. In 2016, Jackson graded out as the league’s 20th best offensive guard out of 72 qualifiers, per the numbers at Pro Football Focus. The Raiders’ offensive line also ranked first in pass protection in 2016, allowing an adjusted sack rate of just 3.4%, according to Football Outsiders. While interior offensive linemen don’t get as much love as tackles, Jackson is clearly a key cog in Oakland’s O-Line.

The Raiders will also have to address the contracts of wide receivers Amari Cooper and Khalil Mack down the line. The structure of Carr’s deal coupled with the Raiders’ cap flexibility should allow the team to hammer out deals for all of its stars and continue to build on one of the best cores in the league.

Raiders Sign Derek Carr To Extension

June 23rd, 2017 at 12:30pm CST by Zachary Links

The Raiders and Derek Carr have finalized a new five-year deal that is believed to be worth about $25MM per year, league sources tell Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Carr confirmed the deal on Twitter on Thursday morning and the Raiders made it official with an announcement on Friday.

Carr is now signed through 2022 with a deal that will contain just south of $69MM over the first three years, according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (Twitter links). Carr’s deal includes $70MM in guarantees with $40MM fully guaranteed at signing, a source tells Tom Pelissero of USA Today (on Twitter). Additional details can be found here.

It has long been expected that Carr’s deal could approach the $25MM/year mark, but it wasn’t clear when the two sides would finally shake hands on a deal. Now, the Raiders have gotten the extension hammered out with weeks to go before training camp. That’s a huge win for the Raiders, especially since Carr was adamant about cutting off talks in late July.

“I wouldn’t even answer my phone,” Carr said recently. “The money isn’t the thing that drives me. … What drives me is making sure I’m giving everything that I have with my abilities, and making sure that we win. And I don’t want anything distracting my thought process at all…Now, that’s not a jab, or anything like that. That’s just me saying I’m not going to deal with anything that’s not helping me just focus on winning.”

The former second-round pick was slated to enter the final year of his rookie contract. Instead, he’ll see a titanic bump after his paltry $1.15MM salary in 2017. Before today’s news, Andrew Luck‘s $24.6MM average annual salary was the highest of any player in the NFL. Carr’s new deal – when counting just the “new” money – will place him at the top in AAV, besting Carson Palmer ($24.35MM), Drew Brees ($24.25MM), and Kirk Cousins ($23.9MM).

Last season, Carr completed 63.8% of his passes for 3,937 yards, 28 touchdowns, and six interceptions. He graded out as Pro Football Focus’ No. 6 QB last season, putting him ahead of Brees, Cousins, Matthew Stafford, Dak Prescott, and several other major names. Only Tom Brady, Matt Ryan, Aaron Rodgers, Luck, and Russell Wilson finished with higher scores than the Raiders QB.

Carr’s new deal will have major implications for Stafford and Cousins as they seek new multi-year arrangements. Lions president Ron Wood admitted this week that a new deal for Stafford would likely mean making him the league’s highest-paid player and the Carr deal only raises the bar. The two sides may now have the framework in place for a deal and that could bump Carr from the top spot in compensation rather quickly.

Meanwhile, Cousins and the Redskins have until July 17 (not July 15) to work out an extension. Cousins is not interested in taking a hometown discount and he is seeking full guarantees that will match the total of this year’s franchise tag ($23.94MM) plus next year’s transition tender ($28.7MM).

Details On Derek Carr’s Contract

June 22nd, 2017 at 3:55pm CST by Zachary Links

We now have some additional details on Derek Carr‘s new extension with the Raiders. As previously reported, the five-year, $125MM deal gives Carr a record-setting $25MM per year when evaluating only the new money. A closer look shows that the deal, while still lucrative, is far from a sure thing for the young quarterback.

Carr will get $40MM fully guaranteed at signing with $70.2MM guaranteed for injury, as ESPN.com’s Dan Graziano tweets. However, the particulars of the deal effectively make this a two-year, $47.5MM contract with team options the rest of the way. That’s because Carr’s 2019 and 2020 guarantees do not vest until February in each of those years. It’s also worth noting that the final two years of the deal – 2021 and 2022 – are non-guaranteed.

If the Raiders do not release Carr before that date in 2019, he’ll be in line for $67.5MM in earnings through the first three years of the deal. As we learned on Thursday morning, Carr’s agents purposely pushed for a backloaded contract so that Carr could take full advantage of Nevada’s 0% state tax. Still, the fine print of the deal leaves Carr with little certainty in the event that he regresses. The notion of Carr falling off before his 30th birthday seems unlikely today, but stranger things have happened in the NFL.

Reactions To Derek Carr’s New Contract

June 22nd, 2017 at 1:35pm CST by Zachary Links

Derek Carr is now the highest-paid player in the NFL – if you count only his new money average. Carr will begin a five-year, $125MM deal in the 2018 season, giving him a record $25MM average annual value. If you roll in his 2017 salary, which is less than $2MM, then Carr’s yearly average falls closer to $21MM. Carr’s deal is substantial, but what kind of ripple effect will it really have on other top quarterbacks around the NFL?

Here’s a look at some reactions to Carr’s new deal:

The market for quarterbacks truly peaked with Eli Manning, Joe Flacco, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers, Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap (on Twitter) argues. Top players have failed to really push the market since 2013, in his view, as he feels that the league’s top quarterbacks should be earning between $27-$30MM per year at this point. Keep in mind, the salary cap has grown roughly 35% from 2013 to 2017 and top QB deals have not ballooned at the same rate.
Fitzgerald (Twitter links) also believes that Carr’s $70MM in injury guarantees hints at a contract that is going to be more like Russell Wilson‘s than a real market setter. A deal giving Carr about $43MM in Year 1 new money, $60MM by Year 2, and $80MM Year 3 would have pushed the market further, in Fitzgerald’s view. For what it’s worth, the expected cash flow on the deal might not be too far off at the start with $40MM fully guaranteed at signing. His $69MM intake over the first three years, however, falls short.
Carr’s new deal led Mike Florio of PFT to wonder how much Tom Brady could have gotten from the Patriots if he drove a hard bargain. One beat writer suggested to Florio that he could have gotten as much as $40MM per year. Florio doesn’t think it’s quite that high, but he does believe that the future Hall of Famer would be making at least $30MM per season if he wanted to squeeze every penny out of New England. Brady is under contract with the Pats through the 2019 season and he is arguably one of the league’s most underpaid players.
Even when going by new money average, Carr’s deal only tops Andrew Luck‘s by $271K per season, Florio notes.
Carr’s deal will impact negotiations for Matthew Stafford, but it probably won’t mean much to the Redskins and Kirk Cousins, as one agent tells Mark Maske of The Washington Post. “The Stafford contract clearly will take it the next step higher,” said one NFL agent not involved in the Carr, Stafford or Cousins negotiations. “Whatever Carr gets, Stafford will get more. The Cousins thing, that’s a little bit different. Those are negotiations where the numbers are set by the [franchise] tag, more so than [by comparison to] other contracts.”

Derek Carr Could Get $25MM Per Year

June 9th, 2017 at 5:00pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

Raiders quarterback Derek Carr won’t negotiate a contract extension once training camp starts, but that could end up being a moot point. The Raiders and Carr have been engaging in “good faith” negotiations in an effort to get a deal done by the camp deadline, reports Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link). If the two sides do reach an agreement, it’s “very possible” Carr will set a new benchmark and become the NFL’s first $25MM-per-year player, according to Rapoport.

Both the league’s ever-rising salary cap and Carr’s performance since entering the pros as a second-round pick in 2014 have him poised to land elite money. Carr is coming off his best season, albeit one that ended early with a broken fibula, as he tossed 28 touchdowns against six interceptions and helped the Raiders to 12 wins and their first playoff berth since 2002.

Colts quarterback Andrew Luck fell just shy of the $25MM mark on the extension he signed last summer, when he inked a five-year, $122.97MM pact that includes a record $87MM in guarantees. Jason Cole of Bleacher Report noted last month that the 26-year-old Carr’s next deal could surpass Luck’s, which jibes with the latest from Rapoport. And Rapoport adds that Kirk Cousins‘ talks with the Redskins could affect Carr’s discussions with the Raiders. In the event Washington extends Cousins for a record amount before Oakland locks up Carr, the latter might have to go back to the drawing board in negotiations, Rapoport suggests, which could be problematic if it happens close to the start of camp.

Without an extension, Carr would play 2017 for a relative pittance and presumably either re-sign with the Raiders or get the $22MM-plus franchise tag next offseason. The Raiders would rather not have to resort to deploying the tag, as Cole reported, so it would behoove them to re-up Carr over the next month-plus.

Extra Points: Carr, Barrett, Cowboys

May 30th, 2017 at 9:23pm CST by Ben Levine

Derek Carr emphasized today that he has no interest in discussing a contract extension with the Raiders once training camp starts.

“I wouldn’t even answer my phone,” Carr said (via ESPN.com’s Paul Gutierrez). “The money isn’t the thing that drives me. … What drives me is making sure I’m giving everything that I have with my abilities, and making sure that we win. And I don’t want anything distracting my thought process at all.

“Now, that’s not a jab, or anything like that. That’s just me saying I’m not going to deal with anything that’s not helping me just focus on winning.”

The former second-round pick is entering the final year of his rookie contract, and he’s certainly in line for a significant raise on the $1.15MM he’s set to make this year. Last season, the quarterback completed 63.8-percent of his passes for 3,937 yards, 28 touchdowns and six interceptions.

Let’s check out some additional notes from around the NFL…

Broncos outside linebacker Shaquil Barrett is expected to miss the rest of the offseason after suffering a hip injury, reports Nicki Jhabvala of The Denver Post (via Twitter). The 24-year-old hasn’t missed a game over the past two seasons, compiling 86 tackles, seven sacks, and five forced fumbles. While the defender will presumably be ready for the regular season, Cameron Wolfe of The Denver Post wonders (on Twitter) if the team might pursue a replacement, citing the team’s lack of linebacker depth.
The Cowboys learned last week that defensive end David Irving is facing a four-game ban after failing a test for performance enhancing drugs. That was followed by yesterday’s news that cornerback Nolan Carroll was arrested for driving while intoxicated. Predictably, executive vice president Stephen Jones wasn’t particularly happy with these developments. “We just have to continue to try to educate these young men that there’s consequences and there’s accountability that you have to have for the bad decisions you make,” Jones said during an interview on the team’s website (via Jon Machota of the Dallas News). “Then we have to move forward and do the very best we can. We know it’s frustrating and disappointing to our fans and all the people who support us…At the same time, they have to know that we’re dealing with young people who aren’t going to be perfect, and we’ll obviously try to continue to draft the right kind of guys, but the right type of guy can make a bad decision every now and then as well.”
The Cowboys lost a pair of team leaders this offseason in safety Barry Church and cornerback Brandon Carr. Following the news of Irving’s potential suspension and Carroll’s arrest, David Moore of the Dallas News writes that the team isn’t “off to a good start replacing” those veterans’ positive locker room presence.

Derek Carr Extension Talks To Ramp Up?

May 23rd, 2017 at 8:41pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Negotiations between the Raiders and quarterback Derek Carr are expected to gain steam following the conclusion of this week’s owner’s meetings, sources tell Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link).

Any deal between Oakland and Carr is likely to be a “strong step above” the five-year, $122.97MM extension the Colts handed fellow signal-caller Andrew Luck last summer. Luck is currently the highest-paid quarterback in the league with a $24.594MM annual salary, but Carr could conceivably top that figure.

Carr, 26, may hold a bit more leverage than did Luck, as the Raiders don’t hold a fifth-year option on Carr given that he was originally a second-round selection. Oakland could deploy the franchise tag in 2018 at a cost of more than $22MM, but the club prefers not to use that tender, per Cole.

Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie said in April that he’s been discussing an extension with Carr “for months”, and characterized those talks as “super positive.” Both McKenzie and Carr have expressed confidence that a new deal will get at some point.

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