Derek Carr had plenty to say about his departure from the Raiders, but the general gist was simple—he didn’t want to just take his ball and go home.
The current Saints quarterback, who started 142 games over nine seasons for the Raiders, was benched and when the team had a 6–9 record with two home games remaining. The fact the Raiders still had an outside chance at the playoffs at that time only added to the controversial decision.
Carr addressed the handling of his final stretch as a member of the Raiders to The Fresno Bee's Anthony Galaviz that he was "mad" and simply wanted to play the final two games in front of the team's fans.
“I was, for lack of a better term, I was very upset; I was mad,” he said. “You spend nine years in a place, you have all the records and you can play at a high level and for something to get in the way, whether it was whatever reason, money related or whatever, injury related, I would have said I don’t even want the money, just to play two more times in front of our fans. I didn’t get that opportunity. So it definitely lit a fire inside me to keep going.”
Carr's comments on the Raiders benching him due to something "money related" or "injury related" point back to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reporting the team opted to make the move to preserve his health for a potential trade. It was also revealed the Raiders would have been on the hook for $40 million that would become guaranteed money if Carr couldn't pass a physical.
Over the nine seasons he spent with the Raiders, Carr threw for 35,222 yards, 217 touchdowns and 99 interceptions. While the Raiders went 63–79 during that stretch, Carr led 33 game-winning drives and 28 comebacks while being named to four Pro Bowls.
