Every sportswriter dreads the off-season. Free agency and the draft give the media a little to chew on, but between the draft and early August, there’s almost nothing to write about. In order to lure in readers, many unimaginative writers will pick a topic that’s easy to distort, and through the magic of confirmation bias, make a point without providing any evidence. The biggest victim of said behavior? Oakland Raiders quarterback, Derek Carr.
Derek Carr: An Easy Target
It’s easy to see why members of the NFL media have targeted Derek Carr. While his Raiders were the fun underdogs last season, they’ve emerged from the NFL’s cellar. Everyone loves to root for an underdog as long as they aren’t actually winning anything. In 2017, the Raiders are legitimate Super Bowl contenders, and short of perhaps Khalil Mack, nobody represents the Raiders like Derek Carr.
Beyond that, Derek Carr signed a $125,000,000 contract this off-season, making him the highest paid player in NFL history. Derek Carr is making more money than Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Matt Ryan? That makes him one hell of a target. And if writing a smear piece from a place of subjectivity is the goal? Derek Carr is an easy target too.
Yards Per Attempt
When dismissing the success of the young quarterback, there are many easy arguments. One that many amateur writers point to is Carr’s abysmal career yards per attempt. After all, he only averages 6.5 yards per attempt after three season. Since 2012, Carr is 25th in yards per attempt among quarterbacks that have attempted at least 1500 passes. That’s just dreadful.
Of course, it would be far too complicated for these writers to actually look at Carr’s numbers, seeing that his averaged was absolutely wrecked by his rookie season, where he only averaged 5.5 yards per attempt on a team with a historically bad run offense and Andre Holmes as his number one receiver.
It would be absolutely ridiculous for these analysts to actually look at Carr’s career numbers by season. If they did that, they’d notice that Carr has averaged seven yards per attempt in each of the last two seasons, which, while not great, isn’t awful either. It’s about middle of the pack.
Honestly, these writers also grossly inflate the significance of this statistic so it can give some much-needed legitimacy to their argument. If yards per attempt really dictated who the best quarterback was, then Kirk Cousins, Dak Prescott, Ryan Tannehill, Marcus Mariota, and Andy Dalton are all better than Aaron Rodgers. If you want to keep the narrative that this stat means anything, have fun trying to justify ranking Andy Dalton ahead of arguably the best quarterback in football.
Record Vs. Playoff Teams
Lately, another number has started running wild too, and that’s Derek Carr’s record against playoff teams. Against playoff teams, Derek Carr is 2-16, and Brock Osweiler started for both of those squads. But doesn’t that factoid alone discredit the entire argument?
The fact that Osweiler was the quarterback on both of playoff teams is a punchline, but it also proves that the quarterback is hardly solely responsible for the success of the team. Nobody in their right mind would claim Osweiler is a better quarterback than Carr, but he went to the playoffs as a member of the Houston Texans and the Denver Broncos.
It’s almost like a NFL roster is made up of 53 players, and it takes more than one of them to win games. Derek Carr is 22-25 on his career, mostly because the Raiders have been a playoff contender for exactly one season.
However, if you decide to apply the logic used by these “writers” in their articles to the all-time greats, you’ll find something interesting. This logic dictates that Ben Roethlisberger is the greatest quarterback of all time. Not Tom Brady. Not Peyton Manning. And not even Joe Montana. Ben Roethlisberger.
Big Ben
Big Ben Roethlisberger averages more yards per attempt than Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Brett Favre, Drew Brees, Dan Marino, John Elway, and many others that are mentioned in the greatest of all time argument. Oddly enough, his career yards per attempt average is tied with Tony Romo.
But we’ve already destroyed the yards per attempt argument, so we have to move onto the wins. When you list the quarterbacks that have started at least 100 games, only Brady and Manning have a higher win percentage than Ben Roethlisberger. He’s won two Super Bowls after all, and the Pittsburgh Steelers are always playoff contenders!
Yup, according to this logic, Big Ben is the greatest of all time. Any of the writers making these arguments is more than welcome to write a piece about why they believe Roethlisberger is the greatest of all time, when and if it ever suits their agenda.
The Last Word
Fortunately, the preseason is about to start, and these same writers can go back to their favorite hobby, making up non-existent locker room problems and pretending Calvin Johnson is mere days from coming out of retirement. They’ll leave Derek Carr alone, lest he has his annual preseason problems, and he’ll continue to improve like he has every year of his career.
And to the Raider Nation, the biggest downside to being the most passionate fanbase in professional sports? That lazy writers will lean on your passion to earn cheap clicks. Don’t worry, they’ll find plenty to write about as the Raiders claim their first AFC West title in over a decade this season, thanks in no small part to Derek Carr.
