Greg Cosell's Film Review: The impressive development of Derek Carr
It's too early to say definitively what Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr will become, but from a skills standpoint and how well he's developing, he has a chance to be a high-level NFL quarterback.
Carr has played very well the past two weeks, and his improvement in his second season is even more impressive because he's working with a new offensive coordinator, Bill Musgrave.
It has been a good fit though. Musgrave is putting Carr in positions to succeed with some calls that accentuate Carr's strengths and that opens things up for him.
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Carr is comfortable in empty sets from the shotgun because he’s a quick thrower with a snap release, and he’s used to quick reads. So the Raiders do a lot of that, and they also use a lot of shotgun, play-action bootlegs because that’s Carr’s comfort zone. From the shotgun, the Raiders have multiple looks and use many different backfield run actions to impact second-level defenders — that creates passing lanes at the intermediate levels for Carr.
Here's a good example of the Raiders’ play calls opening up lanes for Carr. This came on a 3-yard touchdown by Andre Holmes last week. The shotgun sweep action impacted Cleveland Browns linebacker Karlos Dansby. Dansby moved inside to follow the run action, that removed him from the passing lane, and Holmes came open after he beat the nickel cornerback. This is a great play design.
Here’s another great play design that resulted in a 40-yard catch by Amari Cooper. It was out of an empty set. The Browns played a man-free concept, with man coverage on the outside and the slot defenders playing outside leverage and funneling things inside. Tight end Lee Smith dragged across the field to occupy the underneath defender on Cooper’s side. That opened the passing lane from Carr to Cooper on the dig route, and then Cooper had a nice run after catch.
A big concern with Carr his rookie season was that his yards per attempt was very low. I questioned whether he was seeing things well at the intermediate level, which isn’t rare for a rookie. But that’s definitely not the case this season. He is seeing things well and he’s making the throws that are there. Last year he was much more conservative. That’s not the case now.
The Raiders’ vertical game is still coming along, but all the components are there. I think they're continuing toward getting better at that. Carr has a good arm, and Cooper can run every route, including deep routes. On a 68-yard touchdown against the Ravens in Week 2, Cooper ran a great route against Jimmy Smith with a shoulder dip off the line of scrimmage to negate the jam and get Smith on his outside hip, then Cooper stuck hard to the inside before breaking to the corner. Carr found him and it was a long touchdown.
Carr and the Raiders offense have made nice strides this season. Carr looks very comfortable, and credit the coaching staff for helping him become so comfortable. Carr rarely plays frenetically, and he doesn’t throw many bad balls at all. He should be an interesting player to watch as he continues to grow.
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NFL analyst and NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell watches as much NFL game film as anyone. Throughout the season, Cosell will join Shutdown Corner to share his observations on the teams, schemes and personnel from around the league.
