Raiders' Derek Carr will get biggest test against Broncos

ALAMEDA - The presumptive NFL most valuable player bounced to the podium set up outside the Raiders' weight room on Wednesday, all smiles and youthful exuberance.

“I still think of myself as a little kid, just a fan of the game,” he said in response to one question. “It's still kind of surreal and I don't think it will be real to me until I'm done playing. … You can't believe it. It's like a video game. Your name's up there but is it really yours?”

Yes, Derek Carr, that is really your name echoing through conversations about this year's MVP award. The season is only half-done, and old hands like Tom Brady and Matt Ryan will have something to say about the competition. But at least two former NFL quarterbacks (both of them also former Raiders), while debating the topic on CBS Sports Network's “NFL Morning QB” earlier this week, said the midpoint MVP is stationed in Oakland.

“He is,” Rich Gannon said. “They are a perfect 5-0 on the road. They are in first place in the AFC West. And they're doing it without a running game or a defense. This team would be lost without Derek Carr.”

Steve Beuerlein voted for No. 4 as well.

“He is the reason his team is 6-2,” Beuerlein said. “They are playing very well. He has made the clutch throws down the stretch. Every single one of the games they have needed him to step up, he has stepped up. I would have a hard time rating anyone ahead of him.”

The third member (and ex-quarterback) of the panel, Trent Green, went with Ryan, though he acknowledged Carr “is in the conversation.”

MVP or not, Carr seems to be in all the conversations these days. He ranks fifth in the NFL in passing yardage (2,321) and passer rating (100.9), and is tied for third in touchdown passes (17). Pro Football Focus, which generates metrics based on film study, currently rates Carr fourth among regular NFL starting quarterbacks; PFF says he's eighth in deep passing and fourth while throwing under pressure.

And the Raiders are tied with the Denver Broncos atop the AFC West at 6-2, adding another layer of meaning to their clash at the Oakland Coliseum Sunday night.

General manager Reggie McKenzie has made some admirable draft picks over the past few years, including defensive end Khalil Mack and wide receiver Amari Cooper, both of them first-rounders. But it was Carr, the second-round choice in 2014, who has come to define the Raiders' resurgence.

“It's funny, when he came into the league, in the AFC West you had Peyton Manning (in Denver), Philip Rivers (in San Diego) and Alex Smith (in Kansas City). Derek Carr was the fourth guy,” said James Lofton, the Hall of Fame wide receiver who will call Sunday's game for Westwood One Radio. “Now arguably he's head and shoulders the best guy in the division. People talk about Philip Rivers, but where are the wins? With Carr, the wins are there, the passing numbers are there, the ability to scramble out of the pocket is there.”

Asked to describe the ball Carr throws, third-string rookie quarterback Connor Cook had a one-word answer: “Perfect.”

“He can throw with touch, he can laser it in there. Throws a perfect spiral every time,” Cook said. “His accuracy is something else.”

Lofton also credits Carr's pocket awareness, comparing his footwork to a good dancer's.

“You watch Derek Carr and you compare him to other young QBs - like in his last two games, against (Jacksonville's) Blake Bortles and (Tampa Bay's) Jameis Winston, you came away from both games saying he should have been a first-round pick,” Lofton said.

Carr put up good numbers last year, too, passing for 3,987 yards and 32 touchdowns as the team improved to 7-9. The biggest knock against him was his 13 interceptions, several of them at disastrous moments late in close games. And that has been the biggest measure of Carr's improvement this season. He has offered up just three interceptions in eight games.

“The thing with Derek, I think he's throwing it more than anybody in football and he's turned it over less than anybody in football,” Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said on a conference call this week. “That tells you the growth of him. That's what this league is about. Can you be aggressive? Can you go out there and throw it around? Can you keep us in games and not turn the ball over? That's what he's doing.”

Like most quarterbacks, though, Carr's relationship with his teammates is as important as anything he does on the field. Lofton has visited Raiders training camp in Napa each of the past two years. The first time, in 2015, he was impressed to watch the Raiders' young starting quarterback, then just 24.

“The first or second day of camp, they're doing a seven-on-seven team drill,” Lofton said. “And he pulls the whole offense up and starts talking to them. You don't get that around the league from a second-year quarterback. They're usually watching and waiting, finding their place on the team. But here's a young man who took on a leadership role early on. Whether you're a veteran lineman like Donald Penn or a veteran receiver like Michael Crabtree, this is your leader.”

If Carr were to win the MVP trophy this year, he'd be the NFL's youngest (at 25 years, 279 days on the date of the final regular-season game) since Dallas running back Emmitt Smith in 1993.

Leadership, especially at the quarterback position, can take different forms. Ken Stabler, the Raiders icon recently inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was a picture of on-field poise and a rowdy drinking partner at Santa Rosa bars during training camp. Gannon was demanding and intense; he inspired respect more than friendship.

Carr has a different style altogether. A devout Christian, he is so outwardly pleasant, so relentlessly happy that you wonder sometimes if it's a put-on. Teammates swear it isn't.

“That same Derek you see in the media? That's the Derek we see every day in the weight room, the meeting room, the locker room,” Cook said. “He's always upbeat, always has a smile, he's always laughing or making other guys laugh.”

A little later in the conversation, Cook put it more succinctly: “He doesn't seem to have a bad day, ever.”

And Carr's enthusiasm seems to be contagious. Cooper, the Raiders' brilliant young receiver, dropped a potential game-winning pass late in the fourth quarter at Tampa Bay. Afterward, Carr made a point to tell him it was no big deal.

“He always says stuff to me, but they're all positive,” Cooper said. “He encourages me. If I drop a ball or anything like that, he doesn't get down and try to snap on me. And that's something I really like and admire about him. Because it allows me, if one of my teammates drops a ball or they miss a block or something like that, to encourage them. Because I know how it makes me feel.”

Make no mistake, not everybody is madly in love with Carr's game.

“The coronation seems natural, but the film tells a different story,” wrote Andy Benoit, who analyzes film for SI.com's MMQB site. “What's been apparent almost every week (except last Sunday) is that Carr's accuracy is improving but still isn't always commensurate with his considerable arm talent. Uneven drop-back footwork is often to blame. Carr can sometimes get away with it because he is a fluid, athletic thrower who can sling fastballs or float touch passes. But too often he misses on many routine throws.”

NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell had similar observations during a radio interview on KNBR.

The Raiders might not agree on those assessments, but they certainly would like Carr to continue his development. His statistics at the midway point last year were remarkably similar to this year's. But he regressed in the second half of the 2015 season, a big part of why the Raiders failed to make the playoffs.

A sub-.500 record doesn't seem likely in 2016. But it's true that the Raiders' schedule over the next two months is considerably tougher than what they have faced so far, with games against Houston (in Mexico City) and Buffalo, at Kansas City, and two against the Super Bowl-champion Broncos.

The first of those is Sunday, and it will put Carr to the test. Denver is third in the NFL in total defense (301.2 yards per game), first in passing defense (183.9 yards) and tied for the top spot in sacks (26). Starting cornerback Aqib Talib is expected to miss the game with a back injury, but the Broncos' secondary remains formidable and its pass rush, led by Von Miller, savage.

“He has so much confidence in Crabtree and Cooper, he'll just throw it up to them, so we have a lot of chances to get picks,” Denver cornerback Chris Harris said. “He's going to give us a lot of chances to make plays.”

That doesn't sound like awe. If Derek Carr is really going to stake a claim as one of the NFL's elite players, he'll have to prove he can beat a team like the Broncos.

Coach Jack Del Rio heard the MVP talk this week, and had little use for it.

“Yeah, I think that's all great for you all to talk about,” the coach said. “We're on to the next game.

And it's a whopper.

You can reach staff writer Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter @Skinny_Post.