For the second straight offseason, there was speculation that the Las Vegas Raiders could potentially move on from Derek Carr. For the second straight year, the Raiders stuck with him.
Las Vegas has opted to continue moving forward with Carr, but it also nailed down a solid insurance policy in free agency, signing Marcus Mariota to be his presumptive backup.
Obviously, Carr is the No. 1 quarterback in Las Vegas heading into 2020, and with Mariota coming off of a rough stretch with the Tennessee Titans, he doesn't appear to be in any danger of losing his job.
As a result, Carr is actually happy about the addition of Mariota. It was one of the topics that came up in the Raiders quarterback's interview with Vic Tafur of The Athletic:
“I knew ahead of time that Marcus was on the radar, but I didn’t know if Marcus would choose to come here. But I’m glad that he did. I will say this, I’ve been around a lot of good dudes, but he’s one of the best people that I’ve ever been around. I’ve had a lot of great quarterbacks come into our room and a lot of guys that were excited — E.J. Manuel comes to mind — but Marcus was the first one out of all those guys that right when he signed, he texted me and said, “Derek, I am here to fully support you and help in any way that I can, and grow myself as a player and get healthy.”
Mariota was originally selected by the Titans with the second overall pick of the 2015 NFL Draft and got off to a promising start over his first few seasons.
However, from 2017 through 2019, Mariota took a major step backward, partially due to injuries, and ultimately lost his job to Ryan Tannehill midway through the past season.
In five seasons in Tennessee, Mariota threw 76 touchdowns and 44 interceptions while completing 62.9 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 89.6. Now, he brings his skills — and support — to the Raiders.
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