Paul 68

The Oakland Raiders and its fan base held their collective breath when news of starting quarterback Derek Carr’s right ring finger injury broke about a week and a half ago. And while it looks fairly minor per Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk, the thought of Carr potentially missing any practices or games had to freak a lot of people out. Carr is the unquestioned leader of the offense coming into his sophomore season, a season that holds a ton of hope for the Raider faithful.

While it now looking good for Carr to be at training camp as a full participant, the news of the injury has to give any fan who bleeds silver and black some pause in terms of what the Raiders would look like without Carr for an extended period of time in 2015. While Oakland has done a fairly good job of giving Carr both weapons and depth on offense, one thing they are not built for is for someone else to take the reins under center for more than a short time.

Oakland brought in unrestricted free agent Christian Ponder after an underwhelming 4 years in Minnesota, where he never lived up to his 12th overall selection that many at the time called a reach pick. Matt McGloin returns to the team and is a serviceable backup for the most part, but he showed a few seasons back he isn’t ready to be a successful starter for more than a game or two. Other than that, Oakland signed Cody Fajardo out of Nevada as a college FA and can’t expect much from him this year, if he makes the team that is.

Ponder would be the likely starter if Carr were to miss any significant time, and one look at his Minnesota playing career should be enough for any fan of the Raiders to hope that Carr is the last Raider player to get injured. Ponder has spent most of his career turning the ball over; if you combine interceptions and fumbles lost, he is averaging just under two turnovers for every game he has played in, per Pro-Football-Reference.com.

While some of that can possibly be attributed to the teams that Ponder played with, many of those mistakes were from poor decisions and faulty coverage reading. Putting him on the field against the rest of AFC West is a scary thought; all three of the Raiders division opponents finished in the top ten in total passing defense in 2014, with the Chiefs and Chargers both finishing in the top five.
Ponder has spent most of his career turning the ball over; if you combine interceptions and fumbles lost, he is averaging just under two turnovers for every game he has played in, per Pro-Football-Reference.com.

While it is obvious the Raiders don’t want to see anyone other than Carr running the offense in 2015, they’d hate for a team with this much potential go to waste due to poor quarterbacking. And while most teams in the NFL would experience a significant drop-off from the starting QB to the backup, the Raiders might have one of the biggest.

It would be a shame to see Oakland start the season 5-3 or even 4-4 and have Carr miss more than a few games this season. Not only would that obviously stunt Carr’s growth, it would almost certainly kill the Raiders chances at making it back to the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. Raider nation is not just hungry for the postseason, they are practically starving at this point. Carr must stay on the field for Oakland to do the same after the regular season.

Paul 68

ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Derek Carr is coming off his longest stretch of not throwing a football of his young life and is glad it is over.

Calling himself "more than 100 percent now," the Oakland Raiders' second-year quarterback threw extensively Tuesday for the first time in what he estimated to be "30-40" days.

Carr has been dealing with an injury to his ring finger on his throwing hand, and he and the team have declined to give details on the issue. Carr called the injury "so minor" and said all he needed to do was rehabilitate and stretch the finger while giving it rest.

Last week, Carr threw a couple of short tosses at the beginning of practice during the session that was open to the media. Two weeks ago, Carr was only handing the ball off while in front of the media.

Though he was rusty Tuesday on the first day of the team's mandatory three-day minicamp, Carr connected with the No. 4 overall pick, Alabama receiver Amari Cooper, several times, including a deep route in a two-minute drill late in practice.

Carr, a second-round pick in 2014, was the only rookie quarterback to start all 16 games last season. He said the time off from throwing was difficult, but he was reassured by coaches and teammates that resting in the spring has little to do with winning games once the regular season starts.

Oakland coach Jack Del Rio is also confident Carr's issue is a thing of the past.

"It was great to see Derek looking like nothing ever happened," Del Rio said. "It's good to have him back in the full rotation of things."

Go RAIDERS !!!

Paul 68

Want to give a shout out, to the Golden State Warriors, 2015 NBA World Champions. Oakland first Championship since 1989. First parade since 1981, when the Oakland Raiders won there last Super Bowl in Oakland. Congratulations Golden State Warriors.

Paul 68

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-...man-with-throw

Sunnyvale Dave

Kenny Stabler died. He was one of the great Raiders.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-sh...225802393.html

chetly

Sad day in Raiderville. Colon cancer took another one of the greats. R.I.P. Snake.

Paul 68

Yep, sad day.

Kingspoke

RIP, Ken Stabler! A great one!

moose.b3

Sad day for the Raider Nation.

Paul 68

I know Raiders don't retire jersey numbers. But for snake, it should be a exception. First Raiders QB to win a Super Bowl, and put the Raiders on the map. If it wasn't for those damn Steelers, we probably have at least two or more Super Bowl wins. Seem like it was us and Steelers always in the AFC Championship game, in the seventies. God Bless the Snake. Go RAIDERS !!!!

GotCorvette?

How about at least a patch on every jersey next year?

PartTimeGenius

That, or the circular helmet patches like they did for Gene Upshaw.

I also think Stabler should've been in the Hall of Fame long ago, but to me, putting him in posthumously cheapens it. Vote 'em in while they're alive.

God bless ya, Snake

Paul 68

Paul 68

That be

Paul 68

Went over to see how the practice facilites coming along. They painted the building Silver and Black, was just gray before and the new weight room is coming along. Here some pics.

Paul 68

Raiderh20boy

http://

Hi Paul,
Game tickets coming in this week. I think I have KC, GREEN BAY AND CHARGERS (Christmas eve maybe LAST home game in Oakland) still available if you are interested. Let me know!

Paul 68

Hey Gene,
If there going to move, why are they putting all this money in upgrades at the facility in Alameda? Trying to get tickets for Denver game, if I decided to go to a different game or if someone else I know needs tickets and you still have them I will let you know.

Raiderh20boy

Just my thoughts with NO INSIDE INFO. The higher ups wanted to upgrade the facility to be more attractive to possible signings of FA's. The new training/weight room is metal on a concrete slab and I would think moveable. When The Raiders moved last time to another location they practiced all week up here and flew down every sat for games the first year they were not THE OAKLAND RAIDERS.
Again, ONLY MY THOUGHTS and NOTHING MORE! And like last time, IF THEY GO I STAY HERE :-(
MOVING ON, I do have the 6 seats available for the Broncos but was hopeing to get a little more to off set the $ loss on the 2 preseason games.

Paul 68

Yeah, last time they moved, they still practice in Alameda for one year. I hope they stay, but if not rather they go to LA then San Antonio. Be a Raiders fan no matter where they go. For Broncos will you sell just four? Our you just selling all six together?