Is Derek Carr the best young QB in football
With his 513 yard, 4 TD, 0 interception performance, Derek Carr joined Y.A. Tittle and Ben Roethlisberger as the only players to accomplish that feat.
Driving across Wyoming on Sunday on my way back to South Dakota, from Utah, and in the middle-of-nowhere, all I can get is Denver Broncos pre-game stuff...Ay Yi YI...Finally, on the western side of Wyoming I pick up the end of the Raiders vs. Bucs game on AM radio (Yes, it still exists). It's faint, and it's all I can do to crank it and listen as the bevy of penalties was unleashed.
Twice, as I'm driving, the Raiders were penalized for 12-men on the field (Someone please tell me how you can get a penalty when you call a timeout in that situation). I'm pulling my hair out and going crazy, and yet, even though we got Raidered, Derek Carr just kept coming.
He put us in position for the game winner....Janikowski missed!
In OT he put us in position for the game winner....Janikowski missed!
Undaunted, his pass to Seth Roberts sealed the deal and suddenly, Derek Carr is being talked about in the vein of NFL MVP!
While it's still early in Carr's career, he's already been part of eight, 4th-quarter comebacks, ranking him 26th, all-time since these kinds of stats started being kept in 1960. (Tom Brady leads with 37).
Since 2015 Derek Carr leads the NFL, even Brady, with those 8 comeback wins. Mr. Carr is starting to deliver in the clutch and people are starting to take notice. It's not even a comparison anymore if Carr is better than his fellow QB's from his draft class. Blake Bortles, Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel (Poor Cleveland could have had Carr)....Clearly Carr is the best of that class.
And the numbers are starting to pile up!
2015: 3987 yards, 32 TD's, 13 int's
2016: 2321 yards, 17 TD's, 3 int's
People keep talking about Carr like he's a gunslinger and that it's interesting how the Raiders let him make all of these questionable throws, and yet, it's hard to question a guy that has his team at 6-2 with just 3 interceptions on the year.
Ok, to the point though, is Derek Carr the best young QB in the league? I suppose that's one of those flim-flam questions that people can interpret in a million different ways. I guess what I mean by the question is throwing the old quys, Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees, out of the equation, is there any other QB you would rather have on your roster.
1 Matt Ryan, QB ATL 2,636 19 TD's, 4 int's - Maybe....Matt Ryan is having an MVP type year but he's been a bit up and down in his career.
2 Kirk Cousins, QB WSH 2,454 12TD's and 7 int's - NO! While Cousins is throwing for a ton of yards his 7 interceptions have proved costly for the Redskins...
3. Andy Dalton - 2349 yards, 9 TD's 3 int's - NO! While Dalton has had himself a nice career, his inability to win in the post-season just leaves too many doubts.
4. Andrew Luck - 2284 yards, 16 TD's and 5 int's - Luck is the one guy on this list you might take over Derek Carr. He was very good his first few years but seems to have regressed a tad with all of the hits he takes.
Still some questions about Derek Carr but it's seriously hard to pick apart a 67 percent completion percentage, a 7.2 yards per pass and a season QB rating of 101. Yes, he's yet to show us what he can do in the playoffs and over a larger body of work, but you like the comebacks, you like the enthusiasm, the athleticism an with a good young team around him, that MVP talk isn't outside the realm of possibility.
