Carr melding quickly with Gruden

ALAMEDA (TNS) – Another year, another new system for Derek Carr.

Considering Carr signed a fiveyear contract worth $125 million last June and that new coach Jon Gruden has a 10-year deal for $100 million, the Raiders’ franchise quarterback figures to be in this one awhile.

Both the player and coach were enthused about how things went Tuesday when the Raiders took the field for the first time at a voluntary minicamp.

“We went out there and we practiced and it didn’t feel like a Day 1,” Carr said. “We felt like we had been in it. We felt like we had been grinding. We felt like we kind of knew what we were doing, then just making little corrections. It wasn’t like, `Hey, this is brand new.’ It just felt like, ‘This is what we do.’”

Gruden wasted no time in throwing some curveballs at Carr, deviating from the script to see where his quarterback was at in terms of a learning curve. It’s something he’s done throughout his career, and Gruden has long encouraged his defensive coordinators to come up with unexpected twists to keep the offense on its toes.

“You can have a real creative imagination with that guy at your quarterback position,” Gruden said. “He choked this situation today, he was all over it. We tried to give him some audibles, different situations on the very first day, he didn’t blink.”

(In this instance, “choked” is good – Carr had his hands wrapped around a new way of doing things.)

Carr said he enjoyed the give and take that is typical between Gruden and his quarterbacks.

“He threw everything at me,” Carr said. “He tried to get me, see if I was listening to him in the meetings and those things. We had a lot of fun doing that. It’s always fun to accept his challenge and hopefully do good at it and look at him and wink.”

One familiar face is offensive coordinator Greg Olson, who held the same position on Dennis Allen’s staff when Carr won the job from veteran Matt Schaub in training camp in 2014.

After Olson, Carr played in offenses designed by Bill Musgrave (2015-16) and Todd Downing last season.

Since Olson coached under Gruden in Tampa Bay, Carr felt as if he had a head start.

“I don’t know about the guys that weren’t here with Oly, but for me that’s made it easy,” Carr said. “The terminology, the way they call certain things, that has been kind of similar. Obviously coach Gruden brings on his own

Bay Area News Group/tns Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr throws a pass during a mini-camp at the Raiders’ facility in Alameda on Tuesday.

stuff doing it that way, but yes, there are some similarities.”

Carr said he and Gruden, with help from Olson, are melding quickly.

“We’re about 90 percent there, where we’re speaking the same language,” Carr said. “We’ve got

the gist of each other. We know what we’re saying. Once we get rolling, it’s going to be awesome. It already is. I love every part of the process ... there are teams that have been in the same system for 15 years. We have to do that in a hurry.”