5 Questions With Just Blog Baby’s Chase Ruttig

Oct 13, 2013; Kansas City, MO, USA; A general view of the scoreboard showing the Oakland Raiders field position during the second half of the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs won 24-7. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

2. Derek Carr. Is he worth having over, say, Marcus Mariota? His weaponry is … not the greatest, but he seems to be showing some good things.

Carr has had struggles as of late that have opened up the Marcus Mariota discussions ever so slightly because he hasn’t been able to move the ball down the field as well against the Broncos and Chargers in recent weeks, however he has shown more than enough flashes as a second round pick that it is hard to see the Raiders pressing the reset button after one season. You would have to be absolutely sure that Marcus Mariota is better than Carr to do that and while he is a potential Heisman winner it is hard to say how much better he would be than Carr coming out of college even if he played in the PAC-12 rather than the Mountain West.

You have to remember that Carr was at one point in the discussion for a high draft pick before the USC bowl game dropped his stock slightly as his offensive line hung him out to dry, which in addition to Blake Bortles performance against Clemson days later led to a real shuffling of the deck when it came to quarterback rankings leading into the draft process. Carr himself had a senior year that puts him in historic company as a 50 TD, 5000 yard quarterback so this is a high end prospect we are talking about when evaluating Derek Carr’s season. If Carr wasn’t such a blue chip draft pick in his own right maybe the discussion would be stronger, but for now passing on Mariota and addressing other team needs in the first round is what the Raiders truly need to do.