Quarterback Derek Carr
The Oakland Raiders third-year quarterback Derek Carr recently appeared on The Jim Rome Show to discuss what lies ahead for the team. During his time on the air, he talked about the obstacles of last year and how he can use what he learned to prepare for this season.
Here are the key points from his conversation.
Carr has stayed productive both on and off the field, and expressed his excitement for the upcoming year.
"Man, it's been great. The offseason program, we had great attendance, I think everyone was there almost every day. That's a good thing when you're trying to build the culture right and you're trying to build a team right. Since we broke our little minicamp, having this time off, I've spent a lot of time with my teammates, throwing, and running, and working out. We're just trying to put the work in to make sure we go out there and earn some more wins than we earned last year, so far it's going good but I can't wait."
**Carr knows the team can perform better and he's looking forward to showing that in 2016.
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"You know, I remember going through it last year and seeing that we're in the hunt. They always put that little diagram up, who's the division leader, who's in the wild card, and who's in the hunt, and we were always in the hunt. We were always right there and being able to know that you're right there, and being able to know where you stand, and not accomplish it left a sick feeling in my stomach. That hurts, because I know how much effort I put into this and I know how much effort my teammates and coaches put into this, we want to make sure that doesn't happen anymore."
Carr also shared some advice he received this offseason from older brother and NFL Network analyst David Carr.
"No, I mean he honestly would say the exact same thing to me, if he was texting me. Its things I've talked with him about and shared with him. When that came up it wasn't anything new to me, because its stuff that we've already talked about, and stuff that I truly believe. I know that at the end of games I had to learn the management side of things and I have learned it. I've learned how to manage things good at the end of games and I've done things poorly at the end of games, and I know how to do it better. I'm growing, I'm trying to learn as fast as I can to help this team win, so hopefully I won't make the same mistakes at the end of the games last year. Hopefully those, good times, game-winning drives, those kind of things, hopefully we'll have more of that, than the other way."
After the retirement of Charles Woodson and Justin Tuck, Carr is prepared to pick up where they left off. His leadership is essential to this team and he plans to embrace it with open arms.
"Yeah I think, I don't know if there's a pressure to lead or anything like that, because it's in my nature. That's who I am, I've always been that way, even when I was a rookie and we were 0 and 10, I'm still leading. I know who I am and I know what it takes to win. I know what it takes to be a championship level team, and I know what everyone needs to do to see that. I know how to speak life into people, I know how to encourage dudes, and I know how to get them going."
On the other side of the ball, Khalil Mack terrorized opposing offensive lines last season. Carr shared his thoughts on Mack's presence and the bond they share.
"It makes me happy that he's on my team [laughter], I'm glad he's not rushing me with that kind of anger. We have our own pass rushers in our division to worry about, he's one I'm just glad I get to play with. Not only that, we've become really good friends, which is more important to me than anything. That we have that belief in one another, he can come up to me during a game and say, 'hey man we need one right here' and we can go get it done. I can go up to him at some point at the end of the game and say, 'hey man go finish this thing, go get this sack and end this game,' and he'll go do it. We just have a great relationship where we can tell each other anything. To watch him play, to watch him work, is such a joy."
