NFL rumors: Raiders' Jon Gruden, Derek Carr have ‘significant disconnect'

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It hasn’t been a storybook season for the Raiders.

After an offseason rife with optimism and hope, the Silver and Black were right in the thick of the AFC playoff hunt before a back-breaking three-game stretch in which Oakland was outscored 116-33. 

The Raiders had a chance to right the ship in the team’s final game in front of the Oakland crowd, but instead blew a 10-point lead and lost to the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars.

But could Oakland choose to move on from quarterback Derek Carr? His inability to improvise and his propensity to check down handcuffed the Raiders’ offense throughout the back-end of the season and led the Silver and Black faithful to send the quarterback off the field with a chorus of jeers and boos.

It appears there might be a “significant disconnect” between Carr and head coach Jon Gruden, The Athletic’s Michael Lombardi reported Monday.

Lombardi is a more reliable source than most, as the former Browns’ general manager worked with the Raiders from 1998-2007 as a Senior Personnel Executive, overlapping with Gruden’s entire first tenure in Oakland.

“Still, having been around Gruden for many of those good years in Oakland,” Lombardi writes. “I know what he loves in quarterbacks: the toughness, the grit, the willingness to sacrifice, and most of a competitive drive to match his own. Carr makes too many mistakes with the ball, and whether it’s a fair assessment of his ability or not, he never displays the fire that would remind anyone of former quarterback Rich Gannon.”

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Gannon, of course, helped lead the Raiders to a Super Bowl appearance under Gruden's watchful eye and is one of the most revered players in the team’s second stint in the Bay Area.

It remains to be seen whether Carr’s reign as franchise quarterback will persist after the Raiders pack up and relocate to Las Vegas, but Gruden clearly is not satisfied with his QB's performance in 2019.

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