One reason Seahawks should add Derek Carr and two reasons not to
By Lee Vowell
One reason for Seahawks to say “no” to Carr: He’s not overly good or young
Adding a veteran leader as the face of the franchise is great and all but you also need the veteran leader to be a top-end talent. Carr isn’t a bad quarterback at all, but he also has shown that he is a transcendent one. The Seahawks need a quarterback who can take a bunch of young parts and help mold them into a cohesive and consistent unit. Can Carr do that?
Whoever does sign Carr (and he probably is going to leave the Raiders because why would Las Vegas keep an expensive quarterback after benching him for the final two games of a season in a year where they could still technically make the playoffs?) is going to get a good QB. If the rest of the team knows their roles and is pretty decent then Carr is going to augment the overall group. But he is unlikely to make an OK team into one that can go deep in the playoffs.
Carr’s career passer rating is 91.8 That’s not bad but it isn’t great. Compare that to Justin Herbert of the Chargers (95.7), Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs (105.7), and Russell Wilson of the Denver Broncos (100.2) and Carr is the lesser of the four quarterbacks. And all those guys currently play in the AFC West along with Carr (and Wilson is probably going to be better in 2023 simply based on the rest of his career numbers being a lot better than they have been in 2022).
Carr will also be 32 years old when the 2023 season begins. That isn’t overly old, of course, but all those years of starting and the 264 career sacks he has taken, not to mention all the other quarterback hits he has had, probably make his body a bit older than some other 32-year-old. The Seahawks need a good quarterback but they probably need a younger one as well.