Quarterback Derek Carr
Monday morning, Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr joined Bruce Murray and Bill Polian on SiriusXM NFL Radio to share his thoughts on the 2016 NFL preseason. The Raiders are coming off a 27-14 loss to the Tennessee Titans, and Carr took the time to discuss some topics from Saturday's game.
Here are the quick hits from his time on the air:
Carr praised veteran wide receiver Michael Crabtree as one of the leaders of the young team.
"Michael Crabtree who has been a great addition, not only as a football player, but just as a teammate, and as a leader for that wide receiver group, for that offense. He was voted to the leadership council on this team, and that's what guys think of him. He's a guy that somewhat I believe was misunderstood a couple years ago when he was a free agent. Now that we have him, I'm very glad that we do."
He shared his thoughts on the near touchdown to tight end Clive Walford at the end of the first half, against the Titans.
"They were playing a coverage that they weren't even showing on film, a couple times. Kind of threw it soft a little bit, but just made a check to a certain play. I got a little excited because I knew he was going to be so wide open. I'm glad it's the preseason and I can correct that now, and not during when those games really count. We'll do a better job of finishing next time."
Entering his third year, the signal caller discussed the speed of the game, and how his understanding of the game has grown.
"Just learning the game and be able to process it, now that I'm doing it for myself. Taking all that information that I've gathered, every meeting, every experience that I've had out there on the field, and being able to apply it to the football field has slowed the game down for me. That allows me to be fast through my progressions with my feet, be able to be accurate because I know how certain defenders play certain routes. It just helps. It's all a process and the experience is huge, but I look forward to this year a lot."
Carr credits a lot of his growth to the coaching he received during his time at Fresno State.
"They put everything on me, my offensive coordinator Dave Schramm put everything on me. He put protection on me, everything, he said, 'you pick up the blitzes, you call the plays, I want you to run the show.' What that did, it helped me. It created a great work ethic in me, and studying the blitzes, studying the fronts, studying coverages, and studying the game plan. That really helped me a lot in my growth and coming into the NFL."
He expressed his feelings about the team as a whole, and putting in the hard work to get where they want to be.
"I feel really good about it, I really do. Where we were and where we're at now is like night and day, it's not even close. I feel like if we played that team that I was on a couple years ago it wouldn't even be close. We're making the right steps in the right direction. Obviously you never want to project anything, but we believe in our hearts that we can go out there and compete against everybody. We like our chances."
