It's been an eventful 24 hours for Derek Carr.
Wednesday afternoon the Raiders quarterback found out he would be heading to his first Pro Bowl, and Thursday afternoon he spoke with Guy Haberman and John Middlekauff on 95.7 FM The Game on the heels of the announcement.
"I was actually on my way home from working out and training, obviously getting ready for next year, and Coach Del Rio calls me," Carr told Haberman and Middlekauff. "I picked up and he said, 'hey, I hope everything's going well. I said, 'yeah, everything's good,' and he said, 'I just wanted to let you know that you're going to go represent the Oakland Raiders at the Pro Bowl.' I was super excited. I thanked him. I was glad that he called, and it meant a lot to me. That's how it went down."
From there, Carr called his wife, his dad and the rest of his family to share the news, but his conversation with his older brother David was especially meaningful.
"He [David] was so happy," Carr recounted. "I just told him, 'hey, this is really both of us going because you're the one that trained me. You and dad trained me to get me here and taught me how to work hard and all that, so it was just a good moment for us."
While Carr shared credit with his family for helping him earn his way to Hawaii, his performance on Sundays throughout the fall are the reason he's the first quarterback from the 2014 draft class headed to the Pro Bowl.
The former Fresno State Bulldog saw his numbers rise across the board in 2015, setting careers highs for completions (350), passing yards (3,987) as well as passer rating, and he is also the first Raiders quarterback headed to the Pro Bowl since Rich Gannon earned the distinction in 2002.
Photo highlights of Derek Carr's promising 2015 sophomore season.
In addition to his statistical excellence, Carr also became the team's unquestioned leader this season, and of all the texts and calls of congratulations that he received, the ones from his teammates held the most weight with him.
"The coolest ones are from your teammates, because that really means the most," Carr explained. "They're the one that spend all the time with you. They're the ones that see your hard work and all that, so when you hear from them and you hear from past players that went a whole bunch of times and all that, that's the stuff that means the world to you, but there was literally so many I can't just name a couple."
The Raiders' signal caller heads to Hawaii next week and joins teammates, Khalil Mack, and Charles Woodson, as well as Amari Cooper, who was named to the Pro Bowl Thursday afternoon, replacing New York Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall.
