It’s been a tough season for Derek Carr, but he’s finding the golden lining

Derek Carr has been in bad spots before.

Back in 2014, the Oakland Raiders started 0-10 and media wondered if the bleak record was ruining the rookie quarterback out of Fresno State.

“Not if I know who I am,” Carr said.

Fast forward to 2017 and things are bleak again after Carr fumbled at the goal line on the Raiders’ last play in a 20-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys last week in Oakland, making for a less-than-merry Christmas as the Raiders (6-8) head to Philadelphia for another national TV game.

How’s Carr holding up?

“There’s been things that I’ve gone through this year (that) I’ve never been through and I’m learning how to deal with those things.”

“This time next year,” Carr added, “I’ll feel that I’m a better player because of what I went through. Not only on the field, but off the field, as well.”

For the first time in his career, Carr came back midseason from an injury, missing just one game after suffering a fractured transverse process.

His passer rating, which had been improving each of his first three seasons to 96.7 in last year’s run to the playoffs, has slipped to 88.4.

And there were whispers that he’d lost his teammates’ respect during the early season debate over players’ attention to the national anthem. Carr stood at attention; many teammates kneeled.

Answering the latter, his teammates voted Carr as the Ed Block Courage Award recipient.

“That really touched my heart,” Carr said. “It really showed me that obviously I know there’s things I can do better, but it showed me that my teammates still see me for who I am. They still see me grinding through adverse times.”

Raiders coach Jack Del Rio said he believes Carr is growing as a quarterback and will continue to get better: “Even the very elite quarterbacks of all time weren’t perfect every year. Derek is good football player. We’re going to win a lot of games together here.”

This story was originally published December 23, 2017 at 1:42 PM with the headline "It’s been a tough season for Derek Carr, but he’s finding the golden lining."