Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels announced on Wednesday that Derek Carr will be benched for the remainder of the season.
While performance is the obvious reason the move was made, it was not the only motive.
The Raiders want to preserve Carr’s health in anticipation of a potential offseason trade, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports.
McDaniels was noncommittal when a reporter asked about Carr’s future with the Raiders. That probably says a lot.
Carr’s contract is structured in a way that allows the Raiders to get out from under more than $40M in guarantees if they move on from him after the Super Bowl.
Las Vegas has until the third day of the waiver period, which begins the day after the Super Bowl, to cut Carr. They technically cannot trade the 31-year-old until the guarantee vests, but they could reach a handshake agreement with a team.
The Kansas City Chiefs and Washington did that when Alex Smith was traded in 2018.
Now that they are all but eliminated from playoff contention, there is no need for the Raiders to risk Carr suffering an injury.
Protecting his health is in the best interest of the team until they figure out whether they want to move forward with him as their quarterback.
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