Derek Carr needed a contract before he could continue his push to become the Raiders’ starting quarterback in earnest and that detail was taken care of on Wednesday.
The Raiders announced that they have agreed on a four-year contract with Carr, who they selected in the second round of the draft earlier this month. With Carr under contract, the Raiders have signed five of their eight picks.
“I feel great,” Carr said in a release from the team. “I’m excited. I’m excited that this part of it is over and now we can just get to work and focus on winning games and getting better every day.”
Carr was the Mountain West player of the year in each of the last two seasons at Fresno State, but he’ll need to perform at a very high level out of the gate in order to wind up moving ahead of veteran Matt Schaub into the starting lineup this year. Jim Trotter of ESPN reports it would take something “catastrophic” for that to happen, although we’ve seen young quarterbacks wind up in front of newly acquired veterans in more than one location in recent years.