The Raiders have been to the playoffs one time since losing Super Bowl XXXVII to the Buccaneers — in 2016, when the club went 12-4 and lost to the Texans in the wild-card round.
That year, quarterback Derek Carr was a fringe MVP candidate before fracturing his fibula late in the team’s Week 16 win over the Colts. When Matt McGloin injured his shoulder the next week, Connor Cook had to start the playoff game.
Since then, the Raiders have brought in Jon Gruden as head coach and moved to Las Vegas. But now that Russell Wilson has included Las Vegas on his short list of teams he’s willing to play for — and Carr’s brother even said the Raiders should pick up the phone to ask about Wilson’s availability — one of Carr’s teammates is coming to the quarterback’s defense.
Fullback Alec Ingold told Vinny Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he’s frustrated by the perception that Carr is not “The Guy” for the Raiders.
“That doesn’t make sense to me. I just don’t understand it. Because he is the guy. In our locker room, there is a sense of pride that we have our guy and we’re gonna ride with our guy,” Ingold said. “That is what bothers me more than anything. I can’t understand how anybody isn’t ecstatic to have this guy as the quarterback. By the way he plays. By the way he competes. By the way he leads. There is a sense of confidence around here that Derek Carr is our quarterback.”
Carr did have arguably his best season in 2020, completing 67 percent of his passes for a career-high 4,103 yards with 27 touchdowns and nine interceptions. That’s good for a 101.4 passer rating — also the top mark of his seven-year career.
But since Carr has been the quarterback, the Raiders have had just one winning season. They’re 19-29 since Gruden returned in 2018.
Nevertheless, Ingold is confident in his quarterback.
“I remember my first season, Derek came and spoke to all the rookies, and all he talked about was the singular goal of making the Super Bowl,” Ingold said. “That was my first impression of Derek Carr. From that day moving forward, that is all I’ve seen from him in how he works and how he plays and how he performs. ... The bottom line is, I believe Derek can take this team and this organization to a Super Bowl.”