Derek Carr rips Las Vegas Raiders after signing with New Orleans Saints

This offseason, Derek Carr was released by the Las Vegas Raiders before eventually signing with the New Orleans Saints. That departure from Las Vegas wasn’t a surprise, with the writing on the wall there for some time despite Carr being the team’s best starter in years.

With that writing on the wall, Carr was benched before the end of the season. Now, Carr has opened up about that departure, explaining his frustration with how things ended with the Raiders.

“I was, for lack of a better term, I was very upset; I was mad,” Derek Carr said to Anthony Galaviz of The Fresno Bee. “You spend nine years in a place, you have all the records and you can play at a high level and for something to get in the way, whether it was whatever reason, money related or whatever, injury-related, I would have said I don’t even want the money, just to play two more times in front of our fans. I didn’t get that opportunity. So, it definitely lit a fire inside me to keep going.”

As Derek Carr pointed out, he holds most of the team’s passing records by a wide margin. That includes passing yards and passing touchdowns. However, it was clear that the team wasn’t winning enough and it was finally Carr’s turn to be shown the door.

“If you win more games and you keep being productive, you stay there forever. But we didn’t win enough games and that’s the kind of stuff that happens with all the turnover of coaches; with all the different things. Eventually, the last guy in the room is usually going to be out at some point. And that’s really what happened,” Carr said.

“I’ve survived about 20 coaches, and that’s how it goes, and it is what it is.”

Peyton Manning shared his expectations for Derek Carr

Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning knows a thing or two about the New Orleans Saints. After all, his father played for them and he lost to them in the Super Bowl. Manning also knows more than a couple of things about playing quarterback.

As Manning explained, he expects Carr to be successful in New Orleans.

“You gotta come in and earn the respect of your new teammates. You can’t go off of what you did at your previous team. It’s a start over… Quarterback should be the hardest worker in the building and you can’t just come in barking orders just because you’re the quarterback. You gotta earn that role as a leader. I know Derek will do that because like I said, he loves ball and he’s all in 100%,” Manning said.

“That won’t take long, but I think that’s important because [just] because you played a long time and you played somewhere else doesn’t mean that you’ve earned that right somewhere else. I know that was my approach to Denver, and then I think you kind of know when it’s time to ‘Hey, I can speak up.’ For me, even when I got to Denver, I just didn’t say a whole lot early [on]. I was just there to work, let guys know I’m here for ya, and then in September when we voted on captains, I was voted an offensive captain. That told me ‘Hey, maybe I have earned their respect and I can be more of a vocal leader.’”