Raiders’ Lee Smith unleashes fury on reported rift between teammates and Derek Carr
.jpeg "Oakland Raiders tight end Lee Smith backed quarter Derek Carr after a reported “fractured relationship” between teammates and Carr. “Attacking his character, attacking him as a leader on this football team is a joke.”")
Don’t tell Oakland Raiders tight end Lee Smith that there is a “fractured relationship” between Derek Carr and teammates.
Smith unleashed his feelings Wednesday to the Bay Area media after a report this week that there was friction in the locker room between Carr and his teammates.
“Attacking his character, attacking him as a leader on this football team is a joke,” Smith said. “I hope that everyone hears me loud and clear at what a joke it is. It’s frustrating. It’s annoying, and it’s laughable and not fair to him when it’s not coming from inside this locker room.”
Carr was asked about the report and said “it’s nothing to me.”
“Just go talk to those guys,” he said. “If they don’t want to put their name on it, I’m going to leave at what it is. If they want to come say it to my locker … I’ve had plenty of tough discussions standing right here with my teammates. Those are some of the guys that texted me yesterday saying don’t worry about this bull crap. I can’t tell you how many texts I got from former teammates, teammates I have now and all these things that … when you’re losing, crap happens.”
The Raiders are 1-5 and head into Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts (2-5) at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
Carr said he will always continue to work hard and that things will improve.
“There’s no doubt about it,” he said. “We work our tails off to win. It sucks. There’s nothing like losing in the NFL. Also, nothing like winning in the NFL. We believe we’re doing the right things schematically. We believe in our coaches. We’ve seen it work, except when we screwed up as players. We know that if we keep working, good things are going to come. It doesn’t stay like this forever. Our mindset is our guys believe they want to be here when it goes right.”
Lee joined the Raiders in 2015, one year after Carr was taken by Oakland in the second round of the 2014 NFL draft.
Raiders wide receiver Jordy Nelson voiced support for Carr.
“He’s the leader of this team,” he said. “He does everything he can throughout the week to prepare and go out and play well. Any quarterback in this league, to be honest with you, probably gets too much credit when we win and too much blame when we lose. That’s just how it’s been in my 11 years in this league. It’s part of their position, but we have all in the faith in him. He’s been the same guy I’ve seen since day one since I’ve been here.”
Since arriving, Smith said he’s admired Carr as a friend and a teammate, and the report has left him baffled.
“It’s to a point where it’s comical and laughable that I’m even standing here talking about it,” Smith said. “Us as players have zero issues with Derek Carr. He is our leader. He’s always been our leader. We put a C (captain) on his chest for a reason along with Rodney Hudson, and regardless what face he makes after a tackle or what everybody wants to dive into.
“Coach (Jon) Gruden and Derek are going to take a lot of bullets. We’re 1-5. We’re not playing football the way we wanted to play. Coach Gruden had a lot of expectations coming in. We had a lot of expectations coming in. I understand that those two guys take most of the bullets. Those two can definitely handle it. To ever insinuate that there is an issue in this locker room with our leader and our captain is the biggest joke I’ve ever seen.”
This story was originally published October 24, 2018 at 3:08 PM.