Is Raiders owner Mark Davis intentionally committing professional misconduct?
It sure looks like that. The team won 10 games last season and went to the playoffs as one of the league’s feel-good stories. Now Davis seems determined to blast him.
Not only has quarterback Derek Carr been a productive player, but he’s also brimming with passion, making it look like he’s bleeding silver and black. He cares so much that he is known to shed tears in post-match interviews.
Still, Carr, whose 91 straight starts (dating back to 2014) is just behind Tom Brady’s 108 among active quarterbacks, This week was scheduled for the last two games by Josh McDaniels, a head coach who earlier this season looked like he couldn’t survive Halloween.
It got so weird in Las Vegas that Carr, a popular figure in the Raiders locker room, should stay away from the team for the past two weeks to avoid being a distraction, apparently having played his last game for the only NFL team he has adapted for.
Carr is in his ninth season and has been voted into three Pro Bowls. He has 217 career touchdown passes to just 99 interceptions and has completed 64.6% of his passes. Although he has a record 14 picks this season, he has 24 TD assists. He’s the reason the Raiders were able to land star receiver Davante Adams during the offseason, when the two were playing together in college.
The Raiders feel-good story a year ago is long gone.
The Raiders went 10-7 in 2021 and 7-5 under interim coach Rich Bisaccia. Players wanted him back, but were ignored by ownership. Las Vegas is 6-9 this season going into Sunday’s game against the 49ers, with only a slim chance of making the playoffs.
Now the owner seems determined to trade Carr, who he signed a three-year, $121.5 million contract extension with in the spring. If Carr is cut within three days of the Super Bowl, the Raiders will face a salary cap of just $5.625 million in 2023. His salary of $32.9 million for next year and $7.5 million from his 2024 salary would be fully guaranteed in the event of injury.
So obviously what’s at stake is the Raiders, having decided they were ready to leave Carr, putting him in bubble wrap for the last two games over injury fears, despite the fact that he’s practically holding all passing records in franchise history.
All of this just months after giving Carr that extension. This is a first level malfunction.
“Obviously I don’t think anyone was excited about it here,” Adams said this week of Carr’s move.
If you’re a Raiders fan and you trust Davis, you’re either on his payroll or you’re delusional.
Davis is a born third base owner, courtesy of his late father Al, one of the league’s founding fathers. Davis fired two team presidents and two top financial executives, and last year accepted the resignation of head coach Jon Gruden after news broke that he sent racist, misogynistic and homophobic emails. He, too, has been accused of fostering a “hostile work environment”.
And now it blasts the heart and soul of a team that just made its second playoff appearance in 19 seasons.
Curious and inexplicable.
“They’re still in playoff contention and they’re pulling the quarterback?” 49ers linebacker Dr. Greenlaw told reporters in disbelief this week.
It’s your Raiders, Las Vegas. Happy Holidays.
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