After doing a little math (not my best subject) I’ve observed the following; going back to last season’s bye week (so a total of 8 games including yesterday) Derek Carr has some pretty good numbers….

70% completion percentage
15 TD passes
4 INT
201 YPG

Certainly things get tougher the next few weeks. But I don’t feel hopeless with the QB situation.

P.S. If I would have been told before the game started that our backup QB was going to be playing in the 4th Q I’d have been upset!

We'll see what happens in the coming weeks. One problem is that a good Carr maybe gets us a wildcard but does not get us a ring, unless we have the right team around him. And if Carr is good, he will insist on collecting that $40 million in 2025 and $50 million in 2026 and more beyond that, he won't give us any breaks, he said in an interview that he told his agent when he signed with the Saints 'I don't care about money I just want to win' and then he signed for the same per year as Aaron Rodgers when clearly his resume is much less, so Carr is going to get every dime he can for average to above average play and make it harder to put a great team around him. I worry that even if Carr is good, we end up in a trap like Jax with Lawrence or Lions with Goff or Falcons with Ryan, where paying an above average QB who is not clutch in the playoffs championship level money gets us nowhere but maybe a wildcard if we are lucky.

This is not to say you can't win with a Goff type QB. Its really hard but you can. But to do so you need a great coach and Hutchinsons, Sewells, St Browns, etc in their prime all around him, many producing far above their contract prices, and we have been mortgaging the future on players near the end of their career and often drafting poorly. Overall, even if Carr can produce above average, I like our odds long term better if we are not paying him $40-50 million a year long term. For Carr's contract to truly be a win, he needs to not only play up to it, but play above it, to be great. And I am skeptical of whether he can do that. He lit up a bad team, but so did Sam Darnold, for a lot less money.

If Carr has a good year and gets us deep in the playoffs, great, do everything to build around him. But if he has a good year but we still struggle, then focus on cleaning up the cap by moving on from other struggling vets like possibly Ram, Lattimore, and Jordan, and put a younger higher upside team around Carr, while having more financial options for the future.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not sold he’s the guy to lead us back to the SB. Those stats I posted were put up against “subpar” teams and his record is only 5-3 during that span (but has won 5 out of last 6). Lots of work still to do and he could fall on his face in the next month’s worth of games.

But many on the forum have maintained that he sucks (or some form of that opinion). I can’t agree that his performance (especially with the Saints so far) warrant that opinion.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not sold he’s the guy to lead us back to the SB. Those stats I posted were put up against “subpar” teams and his record is only 5-3 during that span (but has won 5 out of last 6). Lots of work still to do and he could fall on his face in the next month’s worth of games.

But many on the forum have maintained that he sucks (or some form of that opinion). I can’t agree that his performance (especially with the Saints so far) warrant that opinion.

The part that a few of you don’t get, is that “He sucks” means, we stay mediocre enough to keep him in the driver’s seat, and Dennis Allen at the helm. Some of y’all just don’t get the frustration of not rebuilding from the top down, especially in key positions, and it makes those who do get it, seem like “Haters”, or fans that WANT our team to suck badly enough to be properly rebuilt.