When the Raiders open training camp later this month, Derek Carr will be able to just get down to business.
He’s healthy, he’s familiar with his head coach and offensive scheme and he knows he’s wanted.
In recent years, the Raiders quarterback has come into training camp after injury rehab or while learning a new coach’s scheme or with questions about whether the team might be looking elsewhere for a No. 1 quarterback.
Not this season.
Despite rumors before the draft that head coach Jon Gruden and general manager Mike Mayock might trade him away or select another QB in the draft, the Raiders stayed with Carr.
“Honestly, it got annoying after a while,” Carr said after the draft. “I’m like, ‘Really, they don’t have nothing else to talk about?’ ”
Now, Carr not only comes into training camp healthy, but with some new offensive weapons in wide receivers Antonio Brown and Tyrell Williams, a rookie No. 1 running back in Josh Jacobs and a beefed-up offensive line.
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He could be poised to have his best season since 2016, when the Raiders went 12-4, earned a playoff spot and Carr was in the league MVP conversation for much of the year.
His play fell in 2017, but rebounded in 2018. He’s coming off a season in which he threw for 4,000 yards for the first time (4,049) and completed a career-high 68.9 percent of his throws.
Carr could be poised for a big year.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Carr said recently. “This is my team and it will be for the next however long I want to play.”
