This offseason was expected to be a busy one for the Las Vegas Raiders as they had around $57 million in cap space to hand out, and they did not waste any time adding players to their organization once free agency started.
Although the Raiders were often tied to Tom Brady, that was one rumor that did not come to fruition. The Raiders have been and will remain Derek Carr‘s team for the forseeable future.
However, the Raiders did sign another big name at quarterback in Marcus Mariota. Although Mariota may be a pretty big name as a former No. 2 overall pick out of Oregon, there is little chance that he is coming in to relieve Carr of his duties. Mariota himself was relegated to the bench just last season after starting his first four years with the Tennessee Titans.
Now that Mariota has arrived in Las Vegas, he understands that he is not taking over for Carr, but here to help support Carr while also improving himself, via Rob DeMello of KHON2 News:
“Well, first and foremost this is Derek’s team and I understand that. I understand that going in. Like I said, I think for me, my priority going into free agency was to be apart of a team that I felt could bring out the best in me. Whatever happens, whatever comes with that, I’m ready for it, but I do know that to play starting quarterback in the NFL, to be at that spot, is not an easy job to do and I think when it comes down to it, a strong, stable, supportive quarterback room makes that job a whole lot easier, and that’s what we have to do. I’m going to do my best to support Derek in every possible way that I can and along with that I’m just going try to become the best player that I can be and see where that takes me.”
Last season, Mariota only ended up playing seven games before being benched in favor of Ryan Tannehill. Mariota averaged just about 171 passing yards per game on a 59.4% completion rate in 2019, while Carr averaged 253 passing yards on a 70.4% completion rate across all 16 games.
Carr had one of his best seasons to date last season from a statistical point of view. Of course, he could not lead the Raiders to the playoffs, but things certainly look bright moving forward. The Raiders should have a much more stable group of wide receivers in 2020 than in 2019, not to mention the combined firepower of Carr and Mariota at quarterback to throw to them.
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