What I’ve heard is that McDaniels had the option to jettison Carr last year if he wanted. Davis was on board. I think McDaniels was very aware of how it would look if he had another Jay Cutler situation immediately on his second coaching stop and while I don’t think he ever really had confidence in Carr, he didn’t want to lose the locker room. The benefit of being able to blame an underwhelming season on Carr and reset was an added bonus.Anteaters wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2023 12:03 pmkiller_of_giants wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2023 10:15 amif the raiders offense is as putrid as it was last year, he's better off sitting the whole season.
Yeah, it was bad last year. I put a lot of that on McDaniels' inability to be flexible with his QB. Carr simply did not fit what McDaniels wanted to do at the QB position. Instead of altering his system to fit his talent, McDaniels seemed to go out of his way to alienate Carr. In the end, it didn't matter all that much because the Raiders were not going to be a deep run playoff team anyway.
Also, I think Carr used that situation to demonstrate to the other players that it's his way or the highway. Not to mention I think McDaniels had made up his mind early on (perhaps before even the first week) that Carr was not his type of QB and he was going to reset at the position once he could get out from under Carr's contract at the end of the season.
AO'C is not going to be as set in his ways as Carr was. AO'C is going to be a coach's pet who runs around like a puppy trying to do his best to please his commander. A 33 year old QB who played for one team his whole career was never going to be the kind of guy who fundamental things about his playing style to fit a HC who was a proven loser in his previous HC job.
It's way too early to predict what's going to happen to Aidan, but I see a glimmer of hope and more than a glimmer of opportunity to prove his worth. He's one a team not expected to make the playoffs, competing against a guy everyone knows cannot stay healthy and a 38-year old career backup. For a 4th round QB, that's about the most anyone can hope for heading into his first season. Aidan is old enough to be mature enough to realize he has to be a coach pleaser to get a true shot. And Aidan has experience coming in with low expectations and outworking/outstudying everyone else to win the starter's job. He'll get his shot. It's just a matter of if he's actually good enough to claim it.
I’m not even sure why Carr isn’t a fit for McDaniels. Carr imploded last year because the team went downfield way more than normal. His aDot climbed a full yard from from the previous season and he struggles with downfield accuracy. It was also a full yard up or more on what McDaniels has done historically with Mac Jones, Tom Brady etc as well. The team also went hard to one receiver rather than spreading the ball around which is out of character for both of them as well. Both Carr and McDaniels got away from what has historically worked for them. I’m not really sure why, but I don’t think a lack of system fit is the answer here.
