Derek Carr officially said his goodbyes to the Raiders fanbase Thursday and the Las Vegas organization reportedly started the process of evaluating the quarterback’s trade market.
NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport on Thursday confirmed all signs point to Carr leaving the organization. What happens from here, however, is quite unknown.
Carr, who holds a no-trade clause, will have final say in where he lands via trade, should that take place. But there’s one major aspect that might prevent any team from wanting to trade for Carr: his current contract.
Carr has three years left on his current deal and the numbers are quite notable, as pointed out by ESPN’s Field Yates.
Carr has a $32.9 million base salary and $33 million cap hit for the 2023 campaign. That cap number currently is the ninth-highest among quarterbacks, per Over The Cap. From there, however, Carr’s numbers balloon to $41.9 million in base and $42 million in cap for 2024 (sixth-highest) and $41.2 million in base and $41.3 million in cap for 2025 (eighth-most).
That might be a little too steep for teams to consider given Carr will enter his age-32 season and his average career production. Going into his 10th season in the league, Carr has only started one playoff game and does not have a postseason win. Of course, many will point to the organization as a key reason for that seeing how Carr only has two seasons in which the Raiders finished above .500.
Nevertheless, head coach Josh McDaniels and the Raiders could have some trouble trading the veteran signal-caller if they don’t consider restructuring Carr’s contract.
