He played with Tom Brady. Why this Raiders WR sees plenty of potential in Derek Carr

Brandon LaFell has played in the NFL for nine seasons with three different teams.

During that time, he’s lined up star quarterbacks Cam Newton, Tom Brady and Andy Dalton.

When LaFell played his first game as an Oakland Raider on Sunday and caught his first touchdown with the team, he had encouraging words to say about his latest passing teammate, Derek Carr.

“It was great because we didn’t have a great performance two weeks ago in London,” said LaFell, referring to the Raiders’ 27-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Oct. 14.

“We put a lot of emphasis on our offensive line this last week and during the bye week. A number of those guys came out there protecting him. With DC able to sit back there and pick the defense apart, he can do things like that.”

Carr said he believes having the 6-foot-3 LaFell in the lineup will help the offense going forward, including Thursday’s Bay Area finale meeting between the Raiders (1-6) and San Francisco 49ers (1-7) at Levi’s Stadium.

“He can play with any quarterback,” Carr said of LaFell. “It doesn’t matter who, because he practices really hard every rep. He doesn’t take one off, even if he knows he’s not getting the ball. He’s friendly to the quarterback. He always runs friendly routes. He can play with anybody. I’m glad that we had some time to work and all those things, but he’s the kind of guy that you can just throw him in and just play.”

Carr, who has completed 72 percent of his passes and has 2,027 passing yards this season, is one of three quarterbacks in the NFL with at least 2,000 passing yards and a completion percentage of 70 or higher in 2018, along with Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings’ Kirk Cousins.

LaFell said it’s imperative that the offensive line continues to protect Carr like this past Sunday in a 42-28 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. The Raiders didn’t give up a sack. It’s likely the team could get back guard Kelechi Osemele (knee) against the 49ers. He’s missed the past three games.

Said LaFell: “If the line continues to block the way they did and we continue to get open down the field in a timely fashion, DC is one of the better quarterbacks in this league.”

This story was originally published October 31, 2018 at 2:45 PM with the headline "He played with Tom Brady. Why this Raiders WR sees plenty of potential in Derek Carr."