It's not about proving anybody wrong; it's about the Super Bowl

There has been a lot written, said and talked about when it comes to Derek Carr ever since he entered the NFL in 2014. Good, bad, or otherwise. And while Carr has mostly danced around conversations pertaining to himself, particularly any sort of criticism, he was pretty open when speaking with reporters early in training camp. He talked about dealing with the pandemic, the benefits of a third consecutive season in the same offense, teaming with Marcus Mariota and a variety of other topics. Here are excerpts from that conversation. Call it Carr in his own words.

- QB Derek Carr

Q: What are some creative ways that you’ve use to build camaraderie with the team?

A: It’s been nuts. We didn’t have any OTAs. We didn’t have any Phase 1. Usually Phase 1, first day you come in, it’s like the first day of school. Everyone is like, ‘Hey, nice shoes. Nice to see you again. You picked me off Damarious Randall a couple of times.’ You joke around and you get to laugh and build those relationships. Well we didn’t have that. As a leader, someone who has been around this place for a while, I know the importance of that stuff. If we want to get to where we want to go, there’s some guys that we’ve added that we need to spend time with. Everyone that had already been tested and it was safe and all these kinds of things. We still spent time together, we just had to do it in a weird, kind of different way. I will say I’d be shocked if any team did more than us.

Q: Greg Olson just talked about wanting you to be more creative this year when the play breaks down. How do you go about doing that?

A: Before Coach Gruden got here, I barely did it. I’m going to sit in the pocket. I’m going to sit here. These reads are going to beat you and my arm is going to beat you. Then he came in and the first year was a struggle just trying to figure out how to move and run around in the pocket. Then last year happens and we’re running more touchdowns. We’re getting more first downs with my legs. We’re winning football games with me scrambling. The arrow is trending up, so it’s a good thing. But we want to still do more. My job is always to do more.