Derek Carr may be even more creative before the snap than he is after it.
Carr has earned raves from Raiders coach Jon Gruden for his ability to turn nothing into something when plays break down. His choice of audibles, however occasionally leaves Gruden scratching his head.
"You think I came up with Purple Walrus?" Gruden said Wednesday in a teleconference. "I don't know here he comes up with some of this."
Quarterbacks use audibles to change plays at the line of scrimmage based on the way the defense is aligned. Teammates hear the magic word or words and change their assignment on the fly. With small crowds or no fans at all in the stands due to the coronavirus pandemic, television microphones have been able to pick up Carr's colorful cadence.
In the Raiders' 35-31 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, NBC broadcaster Al Michaels got a chuckle out of "Purple Walrus."
In the Raiders' first meeting with the Chiefs, Carr barked out "Bruce Springsteen" and "Joe Montana."
A big NBA fan, Carr has been has used James Harden," "Pistol Pete" and Chris Mullin.
He even used "Cindy Gruden" — the name of his head coach's wife.
When the Raiders visit the Atlanta Falcons Sunday, Carr could have an entirely different list of calls.
"I've had some good ones," Carr said. "I've been able to have fun with it and throw certain players' names in there. I've got some new ones obviously for this game. My mind's always working, coming up with stuff, but don't get it twisted. I don't come up with all of them. I'm not that smart."
Amateur sleuths on social media have taken their best shot at deciphering the Carr code.
"Some of my best friends, they'll send me some tweets of people trying to figure out what it means," Carr said. "It's so funny how wrong people are, but it's fun to read for us, because they're trying to figure it out."
Part of the verbal game is covering your tracks with dummy, or fake audibles. Words that mean nothing at all with Carr running the same play that was called in the huddle.
"You can give people a list of our audibles and things that I've said and they still have to memorize that list and know what I'm saying it and know what it means," Carr said.
Gruden wasn't about to divulge the language of changing plays any more than a baseball manager would give out instructions for a bunt or hit and run.
"Just so you know, a lot of it is fake chatter. It's like a baseball coach at third base, giving signals," Gruden said. "You know what it means? Nothing."
A baseball sign is typically live after an "indicator" is given, like for instance, the first sign after tipping the bill of the cap. They can also include "wipeoffs" where a sign is given and then removed. Football audibles can operate in the same way only with words.
"I've used probably 20 of 'em where I say the same word and sometimes it means something, sometimes it means nothing," Carr said. "There are ways to protect it."
Gruden is looking forward to getting fans back in the stands so the roar of the crowd drowns out the game within the game on the field.
"It's a shame now we're giving access to our snap count and our inventory of plays on live TV," Gruden said. "I don't know what the world is coming to."
