MOBILE, Ala. -- Mike Mayock knows that a team doesn’t go 4-12 without a lot of problems. The Raiders had plenty while assembling that record last season, before Mayock joined the organization as general manager.
There are talent deficiencies all over the depth chart. He doesn’t think starting quarterback is one of them.
Mayock understands finding a steady signal caller is difficult in the modern NFL, and the Raiders already have one.
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“When you look at 32 teams in this league and there aren’t 32 starting quarterbacks, yet we have one of them,” Mayock said Thursday at the Senior Bowl, during a sit down with Raiders beat writers. “(Derek) is a starting quarterback in the NFL. He can make every throw. We have to do a better job of protecting him and giving him weapons. He played with rookie tackles last year. We need to get more speed on offense, we need to be more dynamic.
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“Derek Carr, at this point, is kind of the least of our problems.”
Carr produced career-highs in completion percentage and passing yards last year, his first working with head coach/offensive mastermind Jon Gruden despite offensive issues all around him.
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He was a legitimate MVP candidate in 2016, before breaking his fibula during that regular season’s penultimate game. He has struggled to regain that form during down years for the Raiders organization, but eventually found comfort working within Gruden’s scheme and started to thrive.
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Carr is under contract through 2022, though the dead money associated with his release stands at $7.5 million and decreases by $2.5 million each year thereafter until it strikes zero.
Gruden has praised Carr’s effort at every turn, and has said he wants to improve the offense around him. Mayock believes rookie offensive tackles Kolton Miller and Brandon Parker will improve. Expect a positional overhaul at receiver and possibly receiving tight end if Jared Cook isn’t re-signed.
The Raiders must address pressing issues on both sides of the football. That’s what Mayock is focused on during his first offseason with the Raiders.