A Hot Mic Picked Up Derek Carr Putting on a Clinic for How Below Average QBs are NOT Supposed to Talk to Teammates
The entire nation saw this display of histrionics by Derek Carr just under a week ago. When he lobbed an uncatchable ball in the general compass direction of one of the best receivers in football and appeared to be demonstrably arguing it could've been caught. And as Reags pointed out, Carr is not very proficient when it comes to the whole quarterbacking thing:
However, Carr defenders, if there are any left in New Orleans, and Carr himself could argue that we saw that he was yelling in Chris Olave's general direction, but have no idea what he was yelling. They and he could always hide behind the idea that maybe he was just really loudly saying, "That's not on you, Chris! I had to throw that one safely away because it just didn't work out! Nice effort though! Come on back and we'll get 'em next time!" Meaning something encouraging and leadership-y, as opposed to a man in full panic mode as he witnesses his career swirling the drain.
Fortunately for the rest of us, it just so happens that we learn that Jacksonville's Travon Walker was wearing a wire like a mob snitch. And it only serves to make a bad look for Carr into a much worse, truly awful sound for Carr:
To the point that even Walker had to correct him that the problem wasn't Olave's route, it was Carr's throw. “It wasn’t there Derek," he adds. It wasn’t there.”
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Carr was supposed to be the guy to turn the Saints around as they try to finally make it back to respectability in the post-Drew Brees era. But across the board he's putting up the worst numbers since his rookie season. He's in the bottom half of the league in Completion %, Touchdowns, Passer Rating and QBR. And worse, now taking out his frustration on his best offensive weapon for the crime of not getting a throw so errant that it would've required him to be carrying a pool skimmer to haul it in.
Sad. Very, very sad. And the sort of finger pointing that will cause you to lose the trust of your teammates in a way that you will never recover from. It's beginning to look like Carr and his former coach in Las Vegas Josh McDaniels are in a dead heat for who'll be out of work first. And with this little bit of alienating his teammates, Carr just took a half length lead. Things are about to get ugly in New Orleans.