NAPA – Derek Carr can be a people pleaser. The Raiders quarterback has said so before, and point proven true while learning Jon Gruden's scheme last year. He wants to do everything right, nay, everything perfect. He's driven to flawlessly execute a scheme, to throw a ball exactly where a receiver and a coach wants it. The immediate goal can be to get that A-plus after every game and every practice.
There's nothing wrong trying to ace a test. After all, the Pro Bowler has been on the football honor roll since grade school.
Carr is learning more and more, however, that it's good to be the grader. That's a sign of growth, that Carr's more comfortable and taking greater ownership of his role as offensive field general.
He'll still ask Tyrell Williams and Antonio Brown about their preference during chemistry building sessions, but he is demanding of his skills players now more than ever before.
"That relationship right there is important, and me getting better at demanding from them has helped our offense," Carr said. "I can challenge them, and they can challenge me and we all take it in and then just go."
Carr has always been nice when asking for more. Commands these days might not be so sweet.
"Having Gruden around," Carr said, "has made me a bit more testy, I think."
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Having Gruden around a second year has certainly helped. Carr has gone through four play callers and three offensive schemes in five full seasons, so having a year to build on previous knowledge is a rare luxury that isn't taken for granted.
"I tried my best to be 100-percent ready last year, and I feel like I had it down and mastered, but you come back the second year and it's much different," Carr said. "…We're running everything. We're putting everything in. …It's a little bit different now."
That difference is tangible, seen even Saturday during this training camp's first practice. He's more assertive in his throws, and is willing to get out a run when necessary.
"In the second year of a system, it's easier to get through progressions faster," Carr said. "You can eliminate things based on coverage, and then get out and extend (the play), where last year I was trying to do it so perfect."
An edgier Carr on the field and in the huddle should be a little bit more assertive, a bit tougher and completely deaf to the criticism that has hovered overhead this offseason especially.
This is a good time for all that, with improvement demanded of the Raiders as a team and Carr as a quarterback.
He has so many new weapons, from Brown to Williams running back Josh Jacobs to right tackle Trent Brown to human mismatch Darren Waller that the bar's set high. There's also a belief that the skill players are there. The scheme is good. It's up to Carr to make it all go.
These new toys haven't changed Carr's motivation. Neither has the so called prove-it year he's embarking upon now. It has always been sky high. So has his desire to win and to lead, even if it's packaged at times in a different way.
"This is the NFL, man," Carr said. "We have to win now."
