Post by Purple Pain on Oct 16, 2018 19:38:29 GMT -6
They deserve their own thread. Don't @ me! 
ESPN: Wait, wasn't Derek Carr supposed to thrive under Jon Gruden?
Link: www.espn.com/blog/oakland-raiders/post/_/id/22221/wait-wasnt-derek-carr-supposed-to-thrive-under-jon-gruden
ESPN: Wait, wasn't Derek Carr supposed to thrive under Jon Gruden?
But wasn't Gruden hired with the intention of "fixing" Carr? Were they not
supposed to make beautiful music together as Gruden finally had a franchise-type quarterback in his prime?
Yeah, about that ...
Carr, with eight interceptions and two lost fumbles, leads the NFL with 10 giveaways, and the Raiders are bottom feeders at 1-5 heading into their bye week.
In Gruden's dink-and-dunk version of the West Coast offense, Carr is getting rid of the ball faster than any NFL quarterback at 2.41 seconds, per ESPN Stats & Information.
Sure, Carr has had the reputation of being a guy that relishes taking deep shots, but he won't be compared to the Mad Bomber Daryle Lamonica anytime soon.
Consider: While Carr's average pass has never traveled that far downfield (7.4 yards for his NFL career), he has been ultraconservative under Gruden. Because among QBs with at least 100 passes this season, his pass on average is traveling an NFL-low 5.73 yards downfield. The NFL average passing distance among quarterbacks with that many attempts this season is 7.9 yards, with Carr's average the only one under 6 yards.
On the flip side, though, Carr's short passing distance has led to him having the lowest off-target rate in the league, 7.6 percent. ESPN Stats & Information defines "off target" as the percentage of passes over- or underthrown by a quarterback. And he is competing 71.7 percent of his passes thus far, after completing 58.1, 61.1, 63.8 and 62.7 percent in his first four seasons.
And therin lies an issue -- Gruden wants Carr to be aggressive, but not reckless. Push the envelope, just not too far. Take your shots, but be smart about it.
Sounds like the job description of any NFL QB, right? It's just that the Carr-Gruden dynamic is so unique, with Gruden coming out of ESPN's Monday Night Football booth after nine seasons to coach Carr in his decidedly old-school ways. Which make it look like, at times, Carr can't get out of his own way. Almost as if Carr is playing to please his coach by overthinking things, rather than just, well, playing.
Some of Carr's issues, though, predate Gruden's arrival. They actually started to rear their head under former offensive coordinator Todd Downing last season.
As ESPN Stats & Information found, Carr leads the NFL in interceptions on passes thrown at least 20 yards downfield with 10 since 2017. He only threw two picks on such throws in 2016. Since the start of last season, Carr has only completed 33.3 percent of passes thrown at least 20 yards downfield, compared to 49.0 in 2016. His yards-per-attempt average the past two seasons is 12.2 yards, when it was 16.7 yards two seasons ago on throws of at least 20 yards downfield.
Carr told Gruden on his QB Camp show coming out of Fresno State in 2014 that he could make "any throw" in the NFL.
Welp, the threading of the needle needs some help.
The past two seasons, NFL Next Gen Stats has Carr as the league's worst quarterback when it comes to forcing the ball into tight windows, as in an NFL-high 13 interceptions when throwing a pass to a receiver who has 1 yard or less of separation as the pass arrives. The New York Giants' Eli Manning is second with nine INTs in those situations.
More from NFL Next Gen Stats: Among 34 quarterbacks with at least 50 tight-window attempts since the start of 2017, Carr's 28 percent completion rate on those passes is the third-worst in the NFL.
supposed to make beautiful music together as Gruden finally had a franchise-type quarterback in his prime?
Yeah, about that ...
Carr, with eight interceptions and two lost fumbles, leads the NFL with 10 giveaways, and the Raiders are bottom feeders at 1-5 heading into their bye week.
In Gruden's dink-and-dunk version of the West Coast offense, Carr is getting rid of the ball faster than any NFL quarterback at 2.41 seconds, per ESPN Stats & Information.
Sure, Carr has had the reputation of being a guy that relishes taking deep shots, but he won't be compared to the Mad Bomber Daryle Lamonica anytime soon.
Consider: While Carr's average pass has never traveled that far downfield (7.4 yards for his NFL career), he has been ultraconservative under Gruden. Because among QBs with at least 100 passes this season, his pass on average is traveling an NFL-low 5.73 yards downfield. The NFL average passing distance among quarterbacks with that many attempts this season is 7.9 yards, with Carr's average the only one under 6 yards.
On the flip side, though, Carr's short passing distance has led to him having the lowest off-target rate in the league, 7.6 percent. ESPN Stats & Information defines "off target" as the percentage of passes over- or underthrown by a quarterback. And he is competing 71.7 percent of his passes thus far, after completing 58.1, 61.1, 63.8 and 62.7 percent in his first four seasons.
And therin lies an issue -- Gruden wants Carr to be aggressive, but not reckless. Push the envelope, just not too far. Take your shots, but be smart about it.
Sounds like the job description of any NFL QB, right? It's just that the Carr-Gruden dynamic is so unique, with Gruden coming out of ESPN's Monday Night Football booth after nine seasons to coach Carr in his decidedly old-school ways. Which make it look like, at times, Carr can't get out of his own way. Almost as if Carr is playing to please his coach by overthinking things, rather than just, well, playing.
Some of Carr's issues, though, predate Gruden's arrival. They actually started to rear their head under former offensive coordinator Todd Downing last season.
As ESPN Stats & Information found, Carr leads the NFL in interceptions on passes thrown at least 20 yards downfield with 10 since 2017. He only threw two picks on such throws in 2016. Since the start of last season, Carr has only completed 33.3 percent of passes thrown at least 20 yards downfield, compared to 49.0 in 2016. His yards-per-attempt average the past two seasons is 12.2 yards, when it was 16.7 yards two seasons ago on throws of at least 20 yards downfield.
Carr told Gruden on his QB Camp show coming out of Fresno State in 2014 that he could make "any throw" in the NFL.
Welp, the threading of the needle needs some help.
The past two seasons, NFL Next Gen Stats has Carr as the league's worst quarterback when it comes to forcing the ball into tight windows, as in an NFL-high 13 interceptions when throwing a pass to a receiver who has 1 yard or less of separation as the pass arrives. The New York Giants' Eli Manning is second with nine INTs in those situations.
More from NFL Next Gen Stats: Among 34 quarterbacks with at least 50 tight-window attempts since the start of 2017, Carr's 28 percent completion rate on those passes is the third-worst in the NFL.
