It may seem weird to ask about the legacy of someone like quarterback Derek Carr, who recently retired. Carr was never one of the elite pass throwers. He’s not one of those quarterbacks where words like ‘legacy’ are normally used. That word is normally reserved for someone like Joe Montana. Not Derek Carr.
Yet Carr does have a legacy. It’s the legacy of the luck of the draw. In Carr’s case, bad luck. Like so many other quarterbacks before him, you have to wonder what his career would have been like had he not played for such problematic franchises.
It’s likely Tom Brady would be Tom Brady in any of the multiverses, but what if Brady had played for six head coaches in his career as Carr did instead of one? Do we know he’d be Brady with that kind of constant upheaval? If he played for bad coaches? For organizations that were inept?
Many of the players who start at quarterback in the league are like Carr. They aren’t elite talents. They are the NFL’s workhorses. They don’t have the skill of Peyton Manning or the athleticism of John Elway. They’re the middle class. In many instances, they are also unlucky. That partly was Carr.
Carr’s story is universal in the NFL. It will be the story of quarterbacks from this past draft like Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders or Jaxson Dart. Their success will depend on numerous circumstances beyond their control.
It’s easy to be critical of Carr’s career. I have been in the past. Never liked how he’d throw teammates under multiple busses. But on the field he’s been far better than people think despite some absolutely brutal circumstances. As ESPN notes, Carr played for a staggering six head coaches in his nine years with the Raiders. Two of those coaches were interim. There were five different playcallers. He also had a new coordinator in each of his two seasons with the Saints.
It’s difficult to overstate how unbelievably bad those circumstances are. Few quarterbacks would be able to prosper with that kind of turnover. Yet Carr somehow did. He made Pro Bowls and was as tough as they come. Carr would get annihilated behind some bad offensive lines with both the Raiders and the Saints. Yet he’d get hit and get right back up. He played in 15 or more games, ESPN says, in each of his first 10 NFL seasons.
Carr was genuinely a highly courageous player, especially with the Raiders.
Carr was far from perfect, of course. He would make some of the most inexplicable interceptions you’d ever see. Just head scratching stuff. Carr was once blasted by a former teammate who ranted that the quarterback was an inaccurate thrower.
Carr also had just one career playoff appearance (a loss in an AFC wild-card game in 2022 while with the Raiders). He was good, at times even top 10 at his position, but not good enough to put bad franchises on his back and win postseason contests.
For someone of his stature (an NFL quarterback) Carr could also be remarkable thin skinned. He’d go on blocking sprees on Twitter (now X) after even mild criticism. It became almost a running joke. There were two types of Twitter users: those blocked by Carr and those who would be. He blocked me years ago. I also just checked. I’m still blocked.
Carr was once asked why he puts so much effort into blocking people.
“You probably said something silly,” Carr replied. “You probably said something crazy. I mute and block people all the time. You maybe didn’t even say it about me, you maybe said it about one of my best friends, man. And so I’m sorry that it’s come to this. If you wanna go have lunch, we can have lunch, man. From six feet distance, with masks on. All the protocols. You know, I’m not tryin’ to get in trouble in the city again, you know?
“So we can do that. But I block, man. Some of you all probably got blocked on here, too. But we’re still friends. You know? I just don’t want to read the negativity, man. I don’t want someone to tweet it or come at. I don’t wanna see it. So it’s nothin’ personal, man. That’s social media. I’m still me in person, you know?”
It was an honest answer. I’ll give him that.
So what is Carr’s legacy? He was a solid player who made the best of his limited talent while playing on (mostly) bad teams. No, it’s not a Brady-type legacy.
But it’s not bad, either.
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