By nearly every metric, Derek Carr is having one of the best years of his career. He’s already set a career-high in passing yards (4,363) and he is averaging over 7.8 yards per attempt for the third straight season.
But where does Carr rank compared to his peers? Well, that depends on who you ask. According to former NFL general manager Mike Tannebaum, Carr has been a top-15 quarterback all season long. In fact, he is closer to No. 10 than he is No. 15.
In a recent article ranking the top-41 quarterbacks for this season, Tannebaum ranked Carr at No. 11 after a good performance against the Broncos. Here is what he had to say about Carr in that game:
“The Raiders’ Derek Carr completed all eight of his intermediate-distance passes (thrown 10-19 yards downfield) for 133 yards and a TD, tied for the most intermediate passes without an incompletion in a game this season, per ESPN Stats and Information.”
Carr hasn’t been quite as efficient over the last month as he was earlier in the year, but that is expected. His two top receivers (Darren Waller, Henry Ruggs) have been missing from the lineup for very different reasons. But now, Carr is having to rely more on players like Zay Jones, DeSean Jackson and Foster Moreau to move the ball on offense.
The biggest takeaway this season is that Carr is absolutely one of the league’s best quarterbacks and he is someone you can win a Super Bowl with. The Raiders just need to get healthy and give him some more weapons and a better offensive line to do so.
Needless to say, Carr has been excellent for the Raiders in the 2021 season and now has them two games away from making the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
