ALAMEDA -- Derek Carr has had better weeks.
The Raiders quarterback saw his best receiver traded to the Dallas Cowboys on Monday afternoon. Reports surfaced later that night stating that his standing in the Raiders' locker room had taken a hit, that his toughness was called into question.
Oh, and he might be traded. That's a lot to absorb in a short span, heading into Sunday's game against the Indianapolis Colts.
Carr wants to remain a Raider despite embarking on a second rebuilding since being drafted by the team in 2014, despite Khalil Mack and Cooper being traded in roughly seven weeks.
He believes he will.
"My brother (David Carr) told me when I came into the NFL, if they cut Peyton Manning, they're going to cut you some day, too. So, that's always a realization for anybody in our locker room," Derek Carr said. "We all have to show up and give our best on the practice field, the meeting room and all of those kinds of things to make sure we're around for the long haul.
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"But, to be honest with you, I'm the quarterback here today, I have confidence I'll be here tomorrow, and when we turn this around, I'm very confident I'm going to be here when we do that as well."
The Raiders are in a rough patch at 1-5, especially after two blowout losses before the bye. With Mack gone, Carr is the player taking most of the criticism for dismal offensive play and a disappointing record. He hasn't performed to high expectation and knows that full well.
Hearing talk that his relationship with teammates has deteriorated was disappointing, but the private messages and conversations threw such worry out the window.
"I don't pay that any mind," Carr said "I just go talk to those guys. If they don't want to put their name on it, I am going to leave it as what it is. It's nothing to me. If they want to come say it to my locker, I've had plenty of tough discussions standing right here with teammates. Those are some of the guys that texted me yesterday saying, ‘Don't worry about this bull crap.' I can't tell you how many texts I got from former teammates, teammates I have now, and all of these things that when your losing, crap happens."
Carr also had to address, for a second consecutive day, whether he was crying after suffering an injury to his left shoulder. That, in Carr's view, was an odd one.
"I broke my back, I broke my ankle. I didn't cry then, but I guess the shoulder was really tough for me," Carr said, that last part sarcastically. "It was funny, my trainer actually sent me some pictures of me working out making the same face, so I guess I cry when I train, too.
"It just is what it is when you are losing, man. Just like any technique or anything you do as a player. When you are losing, when things are tough, when things are happening, we know how that goes. I know how that goes. I've been doing it too long, but I never thought I'd have to do that."
Outside Carr, the brightest Raiders star players have been traded. That leaves Carr and coach Jon Gruden in the crosshairs when things go south. Gruden has played a bigger part that a quarterback following instructions during his first year in a complex new system. Players, generally speaking, agree with that.
