Carr out up to 6 weeks

Ann Killion: No cause for panic, but team’s resilience will be tested

You could tell Sunday in Denver that there was something more serious with Derek Carr than back spasms. The usually upbeat quarterback couldn’t fake it. He couldn’t pretend he was fine.

The news that came out Monday afternoon confirmed it. He’s not fine. Which means, the already struggling Raiders are not fine, either.

Carr has a transverse process fracture in one of his vertebrae. Head coach Jack Del Rio said at his news conference that a CT scan showed the fracture. The

“Obviously, it’s always a big blow to lose a good player, a key player, your quarterback. The good news is he’s not gone for the year.” Jack Del Rio, Raiders’ head coach

diagnosis is that Carr will miss two to six weeks.

Though it sounds alarming, this is an injury that both Tony Romo and Cam Newton suffered during their careers and each quarterback missed only one week of play. But we’re talking about a fracture in the back, so it would be ridiculous to assume that one person’s injury is going to be the same as another’s.

What we do know is that on top of everything else going wrong for the Raiders, now their scuffling offense won’t have its leader. Carr won’t be available for at least one week and possibly not until after the bye, which is Nov. 12.

Because of the potentially short recovery time for the injury, I wouldn’t expect the Raiders to sign another quarterback. Though the drumbeat for Colin Kaepernick started as soon as the injury was revealed, the Raiders have two quarterbacks on the roster who can sub for Carr.

EJ Manuel moved the team well late in the Denver game when he was forced into action. Connor Cook started the wildcard game in January, so he has some experience.

“Obviously, it’s always a big blow to lose a good player, a key player, your quarterback,” Del Rio said. “The good news is he’s not gone for the year. Certainly the way EJ played (Sunday) was uplifting.

“I thought he was very poised. He handled his business. “

Kaepernick definitely would give the Raiders another option, a more potent one than the other quarterbacks on the roster. But it’s hard to imagine that Del Rio would embrace the idea, especially if he believes that Carr’s injury status is temporary. There would be fear of distraction, of a new player learning a new system, all the usual excuses that teams can use to defuse a potentially uncomfortable situation they would rather avoid.

But if Carr’s situation becomes longer term, the Raiders would be crazy not to consider Kaepernick. Because they’re going to need a spark, one that an extraordinary athlete could provide.

The Raiders were shellshocked when Carr went down with a broken leg Christmas Eve, and they did not recover, losing their final regular-season game (in Denver) and in the wild-card game (in Houston). If they have any expectations of getting back to the playoffs, they’ll need to be much more resilient now.

Baltimore comes to Oakland on Sunday. The Ravens, also 2-2, don’t seem to be a very good team. They beat the Bengals and the Browns, then got destroyed by the Jaguars in London. On Sunday, the Ravens lost to the Steelers. Baltimore’s usually strong defense is ranked 21st, one spot below the Raiders.

Next up after Baltimore for the Raiders are the Chargers. The transplanted team will be fine on the road: Thanks to its owner’s decision to leave San Diego, every game is a road game for the Chargers, who have no home-field advantage playing in a soccer stadium in Carson (Los Angeles County). Though the Chargers are 0-4, three of those losses have come by a combined seven points, including two on missed fieldgoal tries.

And then come the currently undefeated Kansas City Chiefs for a Thursday night game. The last time the Raiders beat Kansas City, Tony Sparano was the interim head coach. That was in 2014. In the early going, the Chiefs, who beat Washington on Monday night, look like the league’s best team.

If Carr’s injury really does stretch out to the worst-casescenario six weeks, the Raiders then would go without him to Buffalo and Miami.

The Raiders have looked flat for most of the past two games. They are 2-2 and have fallen behind early in the two losses and have not recovered.

This is supposed to be a big year. A season when the results on the field will take top billing over their abandonment of Oakland.

But, just one quarter of the way into this special season, the Raiders, and their quarterback, are decidedly not fine.