Raiders’ Derek Carr: ‘Trust me, in our building, we know where we’re headed’
Derek Carr is clear-eyed about the future in Las Vegas after the Raiders wrapped up the Oakland era Sunday.
“We’re all on the same page that when we go to Vegas, if we don’t win more, it really doesn’t matter. I don’t care what stadium we play in,” he said.
“I think our players and our coaches, the core guys that we have leading our football team, do a really good job of not caring about what’s going on around us. I think we can all agree that there was a lot that went on around us, even from the beginning, and we just kind of kept our heads down and plugged away. It didn’t end how we wanted it to, but I promise you that this organization is in great hands.”
The Raiders ended 2019 at 7-9 after losing 16-15 at Denver on Sunday.
Carr completed 29 of 46 for 391 yards and a touchdown. He finishes the season completing 361 of 513 for 4,054 yards and 21 touchdowns against eight interceptions and two rushing touchdowns.
The former Fresno State star said he believes the team is ready to become a consistent playoff team.
“With this group, I have seen, it didn’t matter if we won, it didn’t matter if we lost,” Carr said. “Hunter (Renfrow) catches a touchdown today, perfect example. He catches a touchdown, he gets up and he’s like, ‘I’m so sorry. I should’ve caught that ball earlier.’ It’s like, ‘Great, you just caught a touchdown. Don’t worry about it. We’re good.’ It’s that mindset that’s going to help us be great, if I’m being honest.
“We’re going to continue to work hard, we’re going to continue to grind, but there’s no doubt that since coach (Jon) Gruden got here, we’ve changed the culture of this thing how he wants it to be. We’ve changed the rooms how he wants it to be, and we’re trending this way (signals up). It’s obvious. How ever people want to look at it, positive or negative, they can find ways to do either. But trust me, in our building, we know where we’re headed.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2019 at 8:13 AM.
