Derek Carr 'doing well' in comeback from broken leg
ALAMEDA, Calif. – Derek Carr’s initial plan was to ramp up his rehab from his broken right fibula in time to play in the Super Bowl, had the Oakland Raiders advanced that far in the NFL’s postseason tournament.
But when the Raiders fell at the Houston Texans in the opening weekend of the playoffs, Carr’s comeback took a more timely approach, though Raiders coach Jack Del Rio said at the NFL combine in Indianapolis on Thursday that his quarterback was on track for next season.
“He’s doing well,” Del Rio told ESPN’s Matt Barrie. “Yeah, Derek is healing, and we’re happy about that. He’s obviously a very vital piece of what we do and … we’re happy about the way things are coming along.”
Del Rio was asked how Carr’s ascent played a part in the Raiders’ revival, from an 0-10 start in 2014 to starting out 12-3 in 2016.
“Well, it’s been tremendous for us,” Del Rio said. “I think finding that trigger man is so huge for you and one of the things that we’ve done is we’ve played to the talent that he does have. So some of the things that he did in college, we’ve integrated into the offense and how we approach it.”
Carr, who finished tied for third in NFL MVP voting, passed for 3,937 yards while completing 63.8 percent of his passes in 15 games. He also had 28 touchdown passes and six interceptions for a passer rating of 96.7 with seven come-from-behind drives in the fourth quarter or overtime.
In an interview with Sirius XM this week, Carr said he looked forward to coming back with his “hair on fire” in Oakland.
“We’re really close,” Carr said. “It feels good, obviously, I still have a little bit of the process to go, so I won’t put a number on it … I’ll never put a number on it, but I can assure you I’ll be back 100 percent, ready to go, and we’re almost there.”
Carr also acknowledged after the season he had suffered a fracture in his right (passing) finger on a mistimed snap in Week 12. It was called a dislocation at the time.
With both the finger and leg, broken in Week 16, healing, Carr said he wants to participate in the Raiders offseason program, which begins April 17. Rookie minicamp is scheduled for May 5-7 with OTAs on May 23-25, May 30-June 1 and June 5-June 8 and mandatory minicamp June 13-15.
“My goal is to make sure there’s no lingering effects of anything,” Carr said. “Now it’s just going to be up to what the team and myself, getting together, what we think is the best plan. There’s nothing holding me back physically. We’re just trying to be smart in the way we do it. You don’t want anything to push it back a couple weeks just because maybe we rushed a certain thing.
“We’ve taken this process as slow as possible ever since our team got knocked out of the playoffs. We’re going to continue to do that, but I fully expect to be out there with my teammates when everything starts up.”
When Carr went down, the Raiders turned to veteran Matt McGloin for the season finale at the Denver Broncos. McGloin was knocked out of the game after a poor start, and rookie Connor Cook, who had not dressed for a game until the finale, was awarded the playoff start against the Texans.
With McGloin a free agent, might Oakland look to land another backup quarterback this offseason with Todd Downing promoted from QBs coach to offensive coordinator?
“It’s possible,” Del Rio said in his podium news conference. “I think for us, we want to develop Connor Cook first as our backup quarterback. He’s the guy we know we have now. There’s always competition in this league. I wouldn’t close the door there either and say that we wouldn’t make it competitive for him.
“But, he did a pretty solid job developing throughout the year, and I thought Todd did a great job of that. And even though, you’ll just look at the numbers and say, ‘What do you mean?’ We saw development throughout the year, maturity, the way he prepares, the way he conducts himself, all the little nuances of playing the position. So, there was growth throughout the year, so we want to continue to develop, continue to grow him and then we always have our eyes open and we’ll consider other possible talents.”
