It’s been about ten days since contract extension talks reportedly began between the Raiders and Derek Carr. How long it will take is hard to say, but there is time to get a deal done.
Monday, Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels appeared at the owners’ meetings where he was asked about the status of contract talks with Carr.
“Derek’s fit on the team as a player is obviously what we’re looking for and what we want to try to build around,” said McDaniels. “Our relationship continues to grow personally. We won’t be able to do anything on the field here for a little bit, but that’ll be a process.
I think ultimately, you try to do what’s best for the team and I think both sides got to do what’s best for them. When we get into those conversations with Derek, Derek is going to have to make decisions about what’s best for him. That’s what each man’s right is, and they should do that for their families. And at the same time, we’ve got to try to do what’s right for the team, and there will be a sweet spot in there hopefully for everybody, and we’ll be excited to go forward like that.”
What might that sweet spot be? Spotrac has a projection.
Derek Carr currently projects to a 4 year, $150M extension in our system, $115M of which would be practically guaranteed. This would make him the 7th highest average paid QB with the 7th most guarantees.https://t.co/jafV97SbP5
— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 28, 2022
The numbers projected aren’t necessarily accurate. But if we go by those projections, it puts Carr at an average of $37.5 million per season, likely with all or most of those guarantees in the first three years.
Those projections would line up fairly well with the deal Davante Adams just got which pays out his guarantees in the first three years of his five-year deal, with it highly unlikely he will ever see the final two years.
Immediately upon the acquisition of Adams, it was clear the Raiders were going to give him and Carr a chance to succeed together, which would mean extending Carr. Now we will find out if Carr and Raiders’ new GM Dave Ziegler have a similar enough idea of what is fair market value.
