ALAMEDA — Any chance the Raiders have of re-establishing Derek Carr as an upper tier quarterback rests with keeping him upright with a relatively clean pocket.
Too often, that didn’t happen in 2018, making Carr’s numbers (68.9 completion percentage, 4,049 yards passing) encouraging enough to move ahead with a prosepective franchise quarterback.
After being sacked only 36 times in 30 games in 2016 and 2017, Carr was dropped 51 times a year ago, numbers more closely associated with his brother David, who once-upon-a-time was a punching bag No. 1 overall pick of the Houston Texans.
With incumbent Donald Penn rehabbing deliberately from a Lisfranc injury, the Raiders installed rookie first-round draft pick Kolton Miller out of UCLA as the starting left tackle and left him there all season.