The third quarterback designation would have helped San Francisco. Plus, the impact of Nathaniel Hackett’s hiring, Bill O’Brien’s influence on Mac Jones, the Bills’ championship window and much more in our Championship Sunday Takeaways.
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My understanding as of right now is the Raiders have not granted Carr’s camp the ability to seek a trade. And even though there are the aforementioned teams out there with needs, dealing him before the Feb. 15 deadline—when his $32.9 million base for next year and $7.5 million of his 2024 money vests as fully guaranteed—won’t be easy. And he absolutely won’t be on the Raiders’ roster past that date, so there is the idea that teams that are interested in him should just wait for Las Vegas to cut him.
From there, there are a few questions.
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Why wouldn’t a team just wait for the Raiders to cut Carr? Obviously, you’d do it for the certainty of having your guy, and being able to start planning for 2023. The question, then, would be if someone would be willing to pay Carr $32.9 million next year, and effectively lock itself into him for ’24, or have to pay another $7.5 million before then to get out of it.
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Would Carr take a contract adjustment to facilitate a trade? The one reason why he might want to do it is the optics of getting traded are better than the optics of getting cut. And he’d be able to leave a team he spent nine years with on good terms.
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Why would Carr want to help the Raiders now? I actually have heard things aren’t on terrible terms between the team and quarterback, and that Carr’s handled all this professionally. So this isn’t one of those, at least I don’t think it is, where a player simply isn’t going to help the team out that he’s leaving.
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What else could gum up the works? With Rodgers’s name floated out there, and a ton of veteran quarterbacks (Garoppolo, Geno Smith, Baker Mayfield, Daniel Jones) potentially available at a cheaper rate, and not requiring draft picks for acquisition, teams might be content to wait until March to address the position.
Regardless, Carr has the advantage of knowing—whether he’s cut or traded—that he’ll be able to find a new home a month ahead of the market, and he has a no-trade clause to control his destination. So will the Raiders be able to swing a return for him? Or is he going to be the rare February free agent?
Stay tuned.