Continuity key for Carr repair
New offensive coordinator Olson believes QB can leave poor year behind, continue to improve
Derek Carr’s first offensive coordinator in the NFL, Greg Olson, is back with the Raiders, and they will get a second chance to make it work.
The Raiders started 0-10 in Carr’s 2014 rookie season. Olson was fired later that year after two seasons as Oakland’s offensive coordinator. He has since served as Jacksonville’s offensive coordinator for almost one and a half seasons and the Los Angeles Rams’ quarterbacks coach for 2017.
Jon Gruden will call plays for the Raiders, so Olson might be more of a quarterbacks coach than anything. He said Wednesday the staff is still discussing whether to even hire a coach for the position given the involvement Olson and Gruden will have with Carr.
This past season was Carr’s worst since that rookie year. Even so, the Raiders’ new offensive coordinator sees a thoroughly evolved No. 4 more than three years later.
“The previous season prior to this year, he had such a big year. He still looked extremely talented again this year. You see the arm talent there. You see the talented player. Took a little, obviously, step backwards, but I just think there’s such a big jump from that Year 1 to Year 2 and he demonstrated that.” – Raiders new offensive coordinator Greg Olson about quarterback Derek Carr
“The previous season prior to this year, he had such a big year. He still looked extremely talented again this year,” Olson said. “You see the arm talent there. You see the talented player. Took a little, obviously, step backwards, but I just think there’s such a big jump from that Year 1 to Year 2 and he demonstrated that.
“He’s demonstrated growth throughout his career up until this past season. I just think you can see a more mature player. I think, obviously, his knowledge of the game, you can see that on the tape. His ability to get in and out of bad plays, get the ball out of his hand. Again, I think there’s been tremendous growth since I left him.”
Carr cycled through three offensive coordinators — Olson, Bill Musgrave and Todd Downing — and three head coaches — Dennis Allen, Tony Sparano and Jack Del Rio — in his first four seasons. He gets a familiar face at coordinator but yet another head coach, this time one notorious for squeezing each and every last drop out of his quarterbacks.
So what’s next for Carr? He can feasibly only go up from here after a season in which he threw for less than twice as many touchdowns (22) as interceptions (13). Carr’s 13 interceptions in 2017 more than doubled his six from the year before.
He looked hesitant to throw downfield at times, lacked mobility until late in the season and appeared nothing like the near-MVP quarterback of his third
season.
“Probably more so than anything, this guy has to get some continuity. The fact that they signed Jon Gruden to a 10-year contract, that’s going to provide that stability that he needs and the continuity that he’s going to need,” Olson said. “He’s going to be in a system now. He’s going to be coached by a head coach that’s going to be the play-caller. He’s completely hands on with the quarterback position, and that’s the first time Derek will have, first time he’s going to have an offensive head coach that has a quarterback background and will be hands on with him on a day-to-day basis.
“I just see that growth curve skyrocketing because of that. That, coupled with the fact that the
guy just signed a 10-year contract, should ease a lot of concerns for Derek.”
• New defensive coordinator Paul Guenther is looking forward to coaching linebacker Khalil Mack and having one of the NFL’s best pass-rushers at his disposal.
“I watched pretty much every game from last year and actually I watched a couple from 2016. Having a talent like that and ability of a guy like that, certainly you wanna make it the centerpiece of the defense,” Guenther said. “We gotta continue to develop our younger players to bring those guys up to speed and add people as we go through the draft and free agency, but he’s a guy that you can really build the foundation through and around. He’s an exciting
guy to be able to coach for sure.”
• Guenther, the former Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator, also is high on cornerback Gareon Conley. Guenther’s impression of Conley out of college sticks with him today.
“We’re not too far from Ohio State, so we drove up there and they had plenty of guys coming out,” Guenther said. “Actually he was probably my favorite corner coming out last year. We (the Bengals) didn’t take one last year because we took one the year before, but he was my favorite corner coming out, just his ability. He’s smooth on the pedal. He’s a good press corner, which we love to have, so I’m excited to work with him.”
Conley played only two games this season, in Weeks 2 and 3, before hitting injured reserve with nagging shin issues. If Conley returns to full health, the Raiders will count on him to aid a cornerbacks group that struggled mightily in 2017.
• Unrestricted freeagent linebacker NaVorro Bowman is someone Guenther says he wants to keep.
“I think NaVorro’s a prototype middle linebacker, really,” he said. “The thing that impressed me the most with NaVorro was they got him here midseason and by the end of the year it appeared to me, without really talking to a lot of players, when you watch him on tape he was kind of the leader of the unit, really making a lot of the calls. It looks like he’s a smart guy that understands the game. I love smart guys that love playing football.
“Hopefully we can get him back in the fold and keep him a Raider.”