New Raiders play caller says he'll give Derek Carr more say in the offense

Carr broke out in a big way during his third season in Oakland

The Oakland Raiders had one of the NFL’s best offenses during the 2016 season. Behind the emergence of Derek Carr, the Raiders ranked sixth in yards, seventh in points, and seventh in Football Outsiders’ DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, which adjusts performance for down, distance, and opponent). The offense took such a big step forward and Carr’s development was so impressive that the Raiders actually promoted their quarterbacks coach, Todd Downing, to offensive coordinator (and let Bill Musgrave walk) so that they wouldn’t lose him to another team. 

Downing says he won’t be making many big changes in his new role, but one thing that will change is that Carr himself will have more of a role in crafting what the offense will look like on a week-to-week basis. 

“There’s been a lot made about his command at the line of scrimmage. There’s certainly going to be opportunities for Derek to do that,” Downing said, per ESPN.com. “... Where I see him needing a little bit more command is just being able to share his thoughts of game plans. Being a student of the game, as he already is, but vocalize what he likes and doesn’t like. I think my relationship with him is something that’s going to give him the opportunity to voice his opinions. I look forward to him really taking charge of expressing his thoughts on the offense.”

Downing knows that what the Raiders did last season worked extremely well, though, so he’s not going to make any big sweeping changes.  “We’re going to keep the same system terminology. There’s no reason to change any of that stuff,” he said. “All we’re doing right now is finding the ways that we can all individually do our jobs better, prepare our positions better, and how we can just quarter-turn a couple things to make the offense as efficient as possible.”

Carr is 25 years old now, and he’ll be 26 by the time next season starts. He’ll be in his fourth season, almost at the end of his rookie contract. This is usually around the time when young stud QBs tend to get more control of the offense they’re running, so it’s really no surprise that he’s being given the added responsibility. Now he just has to make sure he comes back fully healed from his broken leg.