Las Vegas Raiders

While the Las Vegas Raiders haven't had much to celebrate this season, Jarrett Stidham is relishing his opportunity as the starting quarterback for the final two games.

Ahead of his first career NFL start, Stidham called this "a dream come true" while speaking to reporters.

"But at the same time, I've been preparing since my rookie year, and I've tried to prepare every single week whether I was the backup or the starter," he added. "Obviously, I've gotten to learn under a bunch of really good guys...players, coaches. I've always tried to treat the weeks the same, and this is no different."

Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels announced Wednesday that Stidham would be replacing Derek Carr for the final two games this season.

"None of us is happy with where we're at, but we think it's an opportunity to evaluate a younger player who hasn't had much time to play," McDaniels said of the quarterback change. "Talking to Derek, who was great, he understands the scenario that we're in and the situation, and very supportive of the two young guys."

After making the playoffs last year and acquiring Davante Adams in the offseason, expectations were high for the Raiders coming into 2022. They immediately dug themselves a hole with three consecutive losses and a 1-4 overall start before their bye in Week 6.

A three-game winning streak from Weeks 11-14 did get the Raiders within shouting distance of the playoff race, but they lost two of their next three games to enter Week 17 with a 6-9 record.

The Raiders are one of four teams in NFL history to lose at least four games in a season that they were leading by 13 or more points.

Per Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, Las Vegas is also the first team since at least 1930 to lose at least four games that it was leading by double-digits at halftime.

Even though Stidham is understandably excited to start games in the NFL, McDaniels isn't doing him any favors with the Raiders' final two opponents.

Stidham's first career start on Sunday will be against the San Francisco 49ers. The Niners defense ranks first in yards allowed (290.3 per game), points allowed (15.3), fourth in opponent passer rating (82.1) and are tied for seventh in sacks (41).

The Raiders will wrap up the season on Jan. 8 against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Mahomes leads the league in passing yards (4,720) and passing touchdowns (37). Vegas mathematically still has a chance of making the playoffs.

Stidham is in his fourth NFL season. He was a fourth-round pick by the New England Patriots in 2019 and appeared in eight games in the previous three seasons.

The Patriots traded the Auburn product to Las Vegas in May, reuniting him with McDaniels. The 26-year-old is 32-of-61 for 342 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions in 11 career games.

Las Vegas Raiders star Darren Waller offered a vote of confidence in the team's new starting quarterback, Jarrett Stidham.

Waller told reporters Wednesday that he and his teammates "took note that he knew what he was doing" in training camp, which helped build belief in his abilities. The roster is now looking to maintain a unified front around Stidham with him taking over for Derek Carr.

"The only thing that's productive is to support Jarrett going forward," he said. "We're rallying around him and letting him know we believe in him and doing what we can to prepare for San Francisco."

This will be Stidham's first start since entering the NFL, and he hasn't done much in his limited time on the field. The 2019 fourth-round pick has gone 32-of-61 for 342 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions in 11 appearances.

Benching Carr seems to be less an endorsement of Stidham and more a sign of the Raiders' plans for the three-time Pro Bowler. If Las Vegas cuts or trades Carr shortly after the Super Bowl, then it's only on the hook for a fraction of his $34.9 million salary cap hit in 2023.

But saying the quiet part—Stidham is a placeholder and a clear downgrade from his predecessor—doesn't achieve much. Las Vegas hasn't even been mathematically eliminated from the postseason yet.

You can't blame Waller for remaining outwardly optimistic about the Raiders' chances with Stidham under center.

Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels hasn't ruled out benching star quarterback Derek Carr for backup Jarrett Stidham.

"That's not good enough, you know what I mean?" McDaniels said Monday in response to a question about Carr's recent performances, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Vincent Bonsignore. "And for us to be able to win this time of the year and be productive offensively, you have to throw the ball better than what we've thrown it at times here over the last month-in-a-half."

While later discussing general playing-time decisions over players with injury or contractual issues, McDaniels added he wouldn't treat the quarterback position any differently in the event he thought a change is required.

"I think there's a possibility that we would do the right thing, regardless of the position, in terms of the team," the coach said.

While McDaniels didn't name Carr, he also refused to say his starting quarterback wouldn't change before the end of the season.

Through his first 10 starts this season, Carr threw 15 touchdowns to five interceptions while averaging 243.5 yards per game. His performance has since fallen off noticeably. The three-time Pro Bowler has averaged 217.4 yards per contest with nine touchdowns and nine interceptions over the last five weeks.

The odds of Stidham actually replacing Carr are probably low. The 2019 fourth-round pick has thrown for 342 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions in 11 appearances.

McDaniels' comments are nonetheless pretty damning for a player who signed a three-year, $121.5 million extension in the spring and is supposed to be the franchise QB.

Carr's contract does provide the Raiders with an escape route this offseason. Cutting or trading him before June 1 would result in a $5.6 million dead cap hit but save $29.3 million in salary-cap space.

Perhaps that's an option the front office will seriously consider if Carr's slide continues over the final two games.

When six-time All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams forced the Green Bay Packers to trade him to the Las Vegas Raiders over the offseason, there was an expectation that reforming his connection with his college teammate Derek Carr would lead to offensive fireworks.

While the Fresno State alums showed flashes of brilliance throughout the season, Adams didn't produce with the same consistency we've grown accustomed to, and he was nearly nonexistent once again as he registered just two catches for 15 yards in the Raiders' 13-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night.

Carr had an abysmal showing, throwing for 174 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions on 16-of-30 passing. All three of his picks came in the second half, and his last one came after Pittsburgh took its first lead of the game with less than a minute to go in the fourth quarter.

NFL Twitter was not happy with Carr for how he failed to get Adams involved in the offense during the disappointing loss:

Saturday's outing marks Adams' third straight game without a touchdown and with less than 100 yards, 10 targets or five catches. A player of his caliber should never be such a non-factor for a team that is now on the brink of elimination from playoff contention.

The Raiders (6-9) will need Carr to utilize Adams more if they hope to be successful when they return to action on New Year's Day against the San Francisco 49ers (11-4), who boast one of the best defenses in the NFL.

Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Chandler Jones has been ruled out for the remainder of Saturday's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers after being carted to the locker room with a left elbow injury.

The 32-year-old signed with the Raiders this offseason after spending the last six seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. Through 14 games with Las Vegas this year, Jones has 35 tackles, 4.5 sacks, three fumble recoveries and a forced fumble. He had three tackles against Pittsburgh before exiting.

Jones missed two games last season after being placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list following a positive test for the coronavirus.

Jones started last season with one of the best single-game defensive performances of the year. He set a Cardinals franchise record with five sacks and added two forced fumbles in the Week 1 win over the Tennessee Titans.

However, his production has tapered off a bit after that. Jones finished the year with 41 total tackles, 10.5 sacks, six forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.

After being drafted 21st overall in 2012 by the New England Patriots, Jones has solidified himself as one of the premier pass-rushers in the NFL. He is a three-time Pro Bowl selection and two-time first-team All-Pro. He was a part of New England's Super Bowl XLIX victory in 2014.

The Syracuse product led the NFL with 17 sacks and 28 tackles for loss in 2017. In 2019, he recorded a career-high 19 sacks. He was limited to five games in 2020 due to a torn bicep.

Jones' injury leaves Las Vegas fairly thin at defensive end. While star edge rusher Maxx Crosby can still be counted on for solid production, it will be interesting to see who lines up on the opposite side of him. Former first-round pick Clelin Ferrell could be inserted into the starting lineup. Malcolm Koonce could also be rotated in during pass-rush situations.

As Jakobi Meyers wound up to whip a 10-yard backward pass to Mac Jones, he was hoping to make New England Patriots history.

He did just that—but not in the way he was hoping.

The all-time gaffe wound up in the hands of Las Vegas Raiders defensive end (and former Patriots defensive end) Chandler Jones, who threw a vicious stiff-arm to the face of Mac Jones and scampered all the way to the end zone for one of the most improbable walk-off wins in NFL history.

Speaking to Peter King of NBC Sports, Chandler Jones described what was going through his mind as the play unfolded:

"It was a desperado situation, and that was a team that would try to do anything to advance the ball for a touchdown. They'll throw the ball, pitch it, lateral it. I knew that was a possibility to happen. I thought they would do a hook-and-lateral, or something like that. They had a random run.

"I actually missed a tackle on [Rhamondre Stevenson]. I went to go punch the ball out on that play and I missed. The guy kept running. By the time I stood up, I realized that the ball was being pitched around.

"They were playing hot potato now. Instead of pursuing the ball, I just started playing back into saying, 'All right, who's the next passer? Who could they possibly throw it to next that's behind the line of scrimmage?' Because they're playing this whole hot potato game. Sure enough, I saw Jakobi Meyers kinda look back at Mac Jones, the quarterback. He was standing in the middle of the field. I literally just jumped up when I saw the ball coming, intended for Mac. Mac was kind of standing there, looking at me with big eyes.

"I literally just jumped up and intercepted it. I just gave Mac a nice stiff-arm with my right hand. The rest was history."

"I don't think I've thrown a stiff-arm in practice," Jones told Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. "When I caught the ball, he was there, I was thinking, You know what, I could try to put a juke move on. I could try to outrun him. I don't know, maybe I could outrun Mac Jones. But whenever defensive players are running for touchdowns, they always get made fun of for getting caught by the quarterback. So I thought, I'm not gonna try to outrun him. I'm just trying to run over him. If I fall and trip, I'll pitch it. Because there were guys behind me."

There was no logical excuse for what transpired. The game was tied 24-24 and seemingly headed for overtime.

The odds of Meyers completing a 10-yard lateral were already low in any situation. Throwing the pass to Mac Jones, who is certainly not the fleetest of foot, lowered the odds of success by an exponential degree. There was no world in which Jones was going to scamper 50 yards for a touchdown, so the options were going to be limited even if Meyers did complete the attempt at a miracle.

Instead, the result was perhaps Chandler Jones' greatest individual play of his career and arguably the most embarrassing moment of Bill Belichick's coaching career.

Despite speculation about his future with the Las Vegas Raiders, quarterback Derek Carr said Thursday that he is focused entirely on the task at hand.

When asked Wednesday whether he's thinking about where he will be in 2023 and beyond, Carr made it clear that he isn't concerning himself with that:

"To be honest, during the season I don't. I've always tried my best to—as I've gotten older in my career—just eliminate all of those things. ... Whenever you have a bad stretch of games or a losing stretch of games or anything like that, that stuff's going to happen. And so, for me, I don't. I should've been traded for eight years now, you know? It is what it is. We have passionate fans; they're passionate people that they just want to see us win. And so, when we don't, obviously they get mad. And they think, 'Oh, then we got to fix something,' and stuff like that."

Carr has spent his entire nine-year NFL career with the Raiders. But since the Raiders could cut him during the offseason and be left with only a $5.6 million dead cap hit, per Spotrac, there has been plenty of talk regarding whether the 2022 campaign could be his last one in silver and black.

The 31-year-old Carr signed a three-year, $121.5 million extension in April, keeping him under contract through 2025, but this season has been a hugely disappointing one for Carr and the Raiders.

After reaching the playoffs last season for the first time since 2016, expectations were sky high for the Raiders entering 2022. They acquired superstar wide receiver Davante Adams in a trade with the Green Bay Packers, signed pass-rusher Chandler Jones in free agency and hired longtime New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels as their new head coach.

Carr has built a strong rapport with Adams and put up decent numbers, completing 62.0 percent of his passes for 3,117 yards, 20 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

However, the Raiders are just 5-8 on the season. They'll likely need to win out to even have a chance of reaching the playoffs.

The Raiders have had their fair share of bad losses this season, including three in a row to the New Orleans Saints, Jacksonville Jaguars and Indianapolis Colts in October and November.

They went on a three-game winning streak after that, but they suffered perhaps their biggest embarrassment of the season last week when they allowed quarterback Baker Mayfield, who had joined the Los Angeles Rams just two days earlier, to lead two touchdown drives in the final four minutes in a 17-16 Rams win.

With the Raiders losing to multiple non-playoff teams this season, it isn't outside the realm of possibility that some major changes could be on the way.

Carr is a solid quarterback, but it is fair to wonder how far he is capable of taking a team. The Raiders have never won a playoff game during his tenure.

The Raiders are currently in line for a top-10 pick in the 2023 NFL draft. If there are multiple quarterbacks in the class whom they like, that could make it easier for them to part ways with Carr.