The questions and whispers about the Raiders ditching Derek Carr to sign Tom Brady have been circulating since the Super Bowl and it sounds like Jon Gruden is tired of being asked about it. (He's only been asked about it once.)
"You're killing me, man," Gruden told The Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Gruden then went on to give the company line in support of Carr, who still will be the Raiders' starting quarterback until further notice.
“We love our quarterback. Our quarterback’s a really good player, Derek Carr," Gruden said. "I want to reiterate that to everybody here in Vegas. We’ve got a good, young quarterback, and the film, the statistics and analytics prove it.”
To be sure, Carr had a fine year in 2019. Working with limited offensive weapons, Carr threw for 4,054 yards and 21 touchdowns while leading the Raiders to a 7-9 record. While Carr's numbers were much-improved in Year 2 under Gruden, his play did leave a lot to be desired. He turned in his worst game of the season in Week 13 against the Kansas City Chiefs with the Raiders still fighting for the playoffs, and couldn't lead the Silver and Black to wins over the Jacksonville Jaguars, Denver Broncos or New York Jets down the stretch with the playoffs on the line.
General manager Mike Mayock gave tepid support to Carr at the NFL Scouting Combine, while saying the Raiders will look to improve every position.
"The bottom line is this, I think everybody needs to understand at what level Derek Carr played last year, OK?" Mayock said at the combine. "The guy completed 70 percent of his passes. He had almost a three-to-one touchdown to interception ratio. I think we were No. 11 in the league in total yards, we were seventh in third-down conversions. We did a lot of really good things on offense last year.
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"The disconnect was we didn't score a lot of points. You're 11th in yards, but you're 24 in points. There's an issue."
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The Raiders surely will look to upgrade at quarterback both for the present and the future. Brady, while worth a gamble if he wants to come, is a long shot. Bringing in a "1B" quarterback like Marcus Mariota to backup Carr and supplant him if the latter struggles should be the immediate play.
The Raiders also could look to draft a quarterback such as Jalen Hurts on Day 2 of the 2020 NFL Draft as a quarterback of the future.
With the new league year and NFL free agency starting next week, the Brady questions won't stop for any team until he makes his decision.