Raiders General Manager Dave Ziegler expects “teams” to have interest in Derek Carr. The quarterback surely will have a market, but it might come in free agency rather than via a trade.
Carr talked to Stephen Holder of ESPN while competing in the Pro Bowl games and confirmed the Raiders have not granted his agent permission to talk to other teams about a trade.
“That’s for [the Raiders] to talk about,” Carr told Holder. “I’m just obeying the rules. If it gets to the date [and I get released], then I’ll be able to talk to all my friends.”
Carr also told Holder he has no intention of extending the Feb. 15 trigger on his contract to facilitate a trade. His contract includes $40.4 million in injury guaranteed salary that becomes fully guaranteed three days after the Super Bowl.
“I don’t think that would be best for me,” Carr said.
That makes a trade complicated as does Carr’s no-trade clause.
But one way or the other, Carr will have a new team next season.
“I just want to win,” Carr said, via video from Tina Nguyen of KTNV. “There’s a lot of teams that want to win. I’m just looking for teams that have made that decision consistently, that they’ll continually choose to do whatever it takes to put a winning program out there. And so, for me, I just wanna win a championship. That’s at the forefront of my mind. It’s not money. It’s not this; it’s not that. I just want to win. I’ve thrown for the yards. I have the records. I’ve done the Pro Bowls. It’s fun, and I’m thankful for all of it. But, as you guys have known me, that’s not at all why I do it. I want to win a championship. So that’s on the forefront. That doesn’t guarantee wherever I go to we can automatically do it, but I’m just trying to find the place where I have the best chance possible.”
He already has moved on from the Raiders, wearing a baseball cap with an NFL logo on it before Thursday night’s competition, and he even made a joke about leaving.