Las Vegas Raiders notebook: No WR/TE in the top 20? No problem for Derek Carr

Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr is being aggressive this season. And as a result he’s on pace for a career high in passing yards.

Through Week 12, Carr is the leading NFL passing leader with 3,414 yards — without having a receiver/tight end ranking in the top 20 in receiving yards.

The rest of the top 10 in passing yards include Tom Brady (3,403), Matthew Stafford (3,316), Justin Herbert (3,3230), Patrick Mahomes (3,200), Josh Allen (3,071), Kirk Cousins (3,013), Dak Prescott (2,932), Aaron Rodgers (2,878) and Mac Jones (2,850).

Raiders wide receiver Hunter Renfrow is 27th in the NFL with 658 yards and tight end Darren Waller has 643 yards.

Here is a breakdown of where Carr’s yards have gone to:

• Hunter Renfrow 658

• Darren Waller 643

• Henry Ruggs III 469

• Bryan Edwards 446

• Zay Jones 236

• Josh Jacobs 198

• DeSean Jackson 140

• Foster Moreau 135

• Alec Ingold 85

• Jalen Richard 45

• Willie Snead IV 32

• Peyton Barber 31

• Derek Carrier 13

Carr is averaging 310.4 yards per game, and if this holds up for the rest of the season, he will finish with a career-high 5,276 yards, all without having a No. 1 receiver.

Carr obviously needs to keep being aggressive because the team plays well when he’s taking shots down the field. He realizes that he needs to keep doing that for the remainder of the season, even if it means putting up big numbers in cold weather cities such as Kansas City and Cleveland.

“We’ve been aggressive all year,” he said. “I think from an explosive standpoint, even in our losing streak we were on, we still had a lot of explosive plays. As (Jon) Gruden would tell me, upward till I want to see the Carr at an angle. I’ve tried to do that and when it’s there, I’ve tried to let them launch probably more times than i probably should have a couple times. When you connect on one, it just gives confidence to the whole team that ‘OK here we go.‘ I’ve been trying to throw them deep all year and just push people vertical, but when you execute, it just it obviously just feels better.”

In a 36-33 overtime win over a tough Dallas Cowboys defense, Carr threw for 373 yards and a touchdown.

It was the sixth time Carr threw for 300+ yards. The Raiders are 6-0 when he eclipses 300+ yards.

“One thing I’ve tried to do this year, especially when 11 (Henry Ruggs III) was here, I was going to be so aggressive,” Carr said after a 36-33 win over the Dallas Cowboys. “It leads sometimes to not completing as many balls on a percentage chart, but to me, (Jon) Gruden used to tell me, don’t ever take your arm out of a game. So when we call these things, let’s rip ‘em. We saw some things on film where hopefully we get some looks, hopefully we can get some long runs down the field. We were able to find some of those. Have an explosive day.”

Daniel Carlson earns award

After nailing a 29-yard field goal in overtime to give the Raiders a 36-33 victory over the Cowboys, Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson was named the AFC’s special team player of the week.

Carlson went 5 of 5 on field goals (22, 46, 30, 56 and 29 yards) against Dallas.

It was the fourth time in his career that Carlson earned the AFC honor and the second Raiders player to earn the award at least four times, joining Sebastian Janikowski who had seven.

Earlier this season, Carlson picked up the AFC honor in Week 2.