HENDERSON, Nev. — Derek Carr will not waive his no-trade clause and will not extend Wednesday’s deadline for more than $40 million in guarantees to kick in on his current contract, sources confirmed to ESPN on Sunday.
The Las Vegas Raiders might release the nine-year veteran quarterback as soon as Monday, the sources said, as only one team was interested in a trade, and it wanted Carr to take a pay cut.
Carr, who turns 32 on March 28, visited with the New Orleans Saints last week.
If Carr is released by Las Vegas, he would then have a month’s head start to begin negotiations and sign with any team of his choosing; other free agent quarterbacks cannot officially do so until the start of the new league year on March 15.
But should Carr be on the Raiders’ roster come Wednesday, his full $32.9 million salary for 2023 becomes guaranteed, as does $7.5 million of his $41.9 million salary for 2024. If they cut him before then, the Raiders will be off the hook for the $40.4 million, and they would take a $5.6 million salary cap hit while freeing up $29.3 million in cap space.
In nine seasons with the Raiders, Carr played for six different head coaches (Dennis Allen, Tony Sparano, Jack Del Rio, Jon Gruden, Rich Bisaccia and Josh McDaniels) and had five different playcallers (Greg Olson, Bill Musgrave, Todd Downing, Gruden , Olson again and McDaniels). He also had a bottom-feeding defense for most of his tenure, going 63-79 as a starter and taking two teams to the playoffs. He lost in his only postseason appearance, against the Bengals in the 2021 wild-card round (he missed the 2016 wild-card round after breaking his right ankle in the season’s penultimate game).
Carr was 12-44 against playoff teams for the Raiders and has had issues in cold-weather games — he is 2-10 with a QBR of 33.6 (44th out of 47 qualified QBs), a 58.0% completion percentage and a 14- 14 touchdown-interception ratio in games in which the temperature is 40 degrees or colder. He is 1-7 with a 35.5 QBR (35th out of 46 QBs) and an 8-9 TD-INT ratio when the game is played at 32 degrees or colder.
He was selected in the second round of the 2014 draft, No. 36 overall, out of Fresno State, the fourth QB selected that year, behind Blake Bortles, Johnny Manziel and Teddy Bridgewater.
Carr overtook veteran Matt Schaub in training camp as a rookie and went on to set virtually every passing record in franchise history, including 35,222 passing yards and 217 TD passes.
With the Raiders’ new regime of McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler, Carr was signed to a three-year, $121.5 million extension last spring that included the no-trade clause as well as the out for the team.
With two games to play in what turned out to be a prove-it season under McDaniels, and with the Raiders still mathematically alive for the playoffs, Carr was benched. He left the team in what was described as a “mutual decision” and bade farewell to Raiders fans in social media posts and restated his thoughts when he participated in the recent Pro Bowl Games, his fourth Pro Bowl selection, third as an alternate.
The Raiders started Jarrett Stidham the final two games, but he is scheduled to hit free agency with the Raiders linked to veterans Tom Brady (before he retired), Aaron Rodgers and Jimmy Garoppolo. Las Vegas, projected to have as many as 11 picks in April’s draft, holds the No. 7 overall selection. If Carr is released, the only quarterback the Raiders would have under contract would be Chase Garbers.