Raiders QB Carr on contract: ‘I never chased the money.’
Carr says record pay package will have no bearing on the way he conducts his life or work
ALAMEDA — Derek Carr, the Raiders $125 million man, spent the better part his news conference Friday promising to spread the wealth.
Carr, who signed a five-year contract extension reportedly worth an NFL-high $25 million per season, said the deal that ties him to the Raiders from Oakland to Las Vegas, was never about the dollars.
“I never chased the money,” Carr said in a 23-minute news conference that was shown live on ESPN and the NFL Network. “It was never, ever going to be about the money. If one kid watching this can understand what I’m trying to tell them by saying that, then I think I’ve done my job.”
Carr had set a training camp deadline for an extension in order to properly focus on the 2017 season, and it turned out there was no need for a ticking clock. Between now and reporting day on July 28, general manager Reggie McKenzie can shape the Raiders in a financial sense around Carr’s deal.
The contract, negotiated by Carr’s agent Tim Younger and Raiders executive Dan Ventrelle, came together quickly, McKenzie said.
“We didn’t think it was going to get to training camp, to be honest,” McKenzie said. “Both sides wanted the deal done … we both wanted the same thing, so it was easy, but it’s a relief to know that going into training camp he’s our guy. And it’s a relief off Derek’s shoulders.”
“You can give me a dollar, you can give me 25 million, it doesn’t matter to me. My goal is to make sure I give everything I have to this organization.”
The contract, according to ESPN and broken down on overthecap.com, has a first-year payout of $25.2 million and includes a $12.5 million signing bonus, a $7.5 million roster bonus and a salary of $5 million.
Carr’s salary cap number for 2017 is $15.7 million. The Raiders still have more than $18 million in cap space, plenty of room to re-up with players such as guard Gabe Jackson and defensive end Khalil Mack, and down the road, wide receiver Amari Cooper.
“All along the way I was like, ‘How do we keep my teammates?’” Carr said. “I kept telling (Younger), ‘Is this good for Gabe? Is this good for Khalil? Is this good for Amari?’ I didn’t want to hurt our team. That’s the last thing I wanted to do. That’s why I was so involved.”
Said McKenzie: “The bottom line is we’re able to continue to move forward here, to keep all the players we need in the correct timing. This affords us (the opportunity) to do that.”
At certain points in the negotiation, Carr said he advised Younger to back off rather than seek more.
“He really tried to push me for some things, I said, ‘You know what? I’m good, man. That’s plenty,’” Carr said. “He agreed.”
Carr said his idea of a big splurge is a visit to Chickfil-A and was nonspecific about philanthropic pursuits other than his interest in Christian missionary work in Haiti.
“I’m going to do my best to make sure no one knows what we do with it,” Carr said. “I’ll just say this — I can assure it will help a lot of people. I’m not stingy. My business manager probably will be on me, saying, ‘Hey, man, that’s enough.’ I won’t get into when or how or why. It’s not about that for me. It’s about making a difference.”
Carr said the money will have no bearing on the way he conducts his life or how he prepares as a football player.
“You can give me a dollar, you can give me 25 million, it doesn’t matter to me,” Carr said. “My goal is to make sure I give everything I have to this organization.”
Carr said the feedback from his teammates throughout the process has been overwhelming.
“All of my teammates to a man said, ‘Man, you work your tail off, you deserve it,’ ” Carr said. “I don’t feel like I deserve it. But just them saying that grabbed my heart because they’re the ones I work with every single day. What they have to say really, really matters to me. I do know I will have to owe them all a big dinner.”
While Carr for now has a narrow margin as the NFL’s highest-paid player in terms of yearly average over Andrew Luck, he is fine with being bypassed in the future with quarterbacks such as Matt Stafford of Detroit, Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay, Marcus Mariota of Tennessee and Jameis Winston of Tampa Bay up for paydays within the next year or two.
“I don’t care if they all do,” Carr said. “We got our contract done and that’s all that mattered to me … I just wanted to get mine done and make sure the team had the flexibility to make sure my friends stayed around.”
“I don’t care if they all do. We got our contract done and that’s all that mattered to me … I just wanted to get mine done and make sure the team had the flexibility to make sure my friends stayed around.” — Raiders quarterback, Derek Carr