Through all the ups and downs, Derek Carr’s all about routine

Even now, in his seventh season as starting quarterback for the Raiders, Derek Carr awakens thinking about routine. About the calendar. About when he throws next and what film awaits his evaluation.

The specifics of it change weekly depending on opponent. The consistency of it never does.

He learned such a method as a rookie in 2014 from offensive coordinator Greg Olson, who would depart the franchise following that year only to return in the same capacity under head coach Jon Gruden in 2018.

Carr’s impressive season, save a forgettable performance in which he turned the ball over four times during a 43-6 loss at Atlanta last week, is credited by most to him being in Gruden’s system a third straight year. To hearing daily the distinctive and often demanding voice of Gruden. To understanding all that is Chucky.

But it goes deeper than that, back to when Carr was taught that a sequence of actions regularly followed could make for a long and successful career.

“He really had a thirst for knowledge when we first got him,” Olson said. “He’s very intelligent. We just ask him to get a little bit better each day. I’ve just tried to be a sounding board between him and Jon.

“It’s a constant, never-ending search for self improvement. (Carr) has gotten better every season. He can certainly be better. We expect it of him, and he expects it from himself.”

This week, he really does.

Ups and downs

Seven days. That’s how fast the NFL can knock you from the top if its food chain to begging for scraps. How fast deserved praise can turn to fair criticism.

The Raiders on Sunday hope to put that disastrous loss to the Falcons behind them when meeting the winless Jets at MetLife Stadium, where Carr and his team were hammered 34-3 last season.

It began a slide that saw the Raiders lose five of their final six games to finish 7-9 and out of the playoff picture. They’re 6-5 right now. Ah, memories.

Two weeks ago, Carr put together one of the most efficient games from an NFL quarterback in years, the only blemish being on the losing end of a 35-31 final to Kansas City.

Last week, he finished 22-of-34 for 215 yards, lost three fumbles and threw a pick-six against the Falcons.

Top of the heap.

Bottom of the barrel.

This helps: Carr has always followed his worst game of a season — based on passer rating — with a better one the following week. The Raiders are 3-3 in such games, but his numbers have consistently improved. Sometimes dramatically so.

How much? Over those six forgettable losses, he offered an average passer rating of 58.5.

The following games: an average rating of 102.7.

And there haven’t been many bad ones in 2020.

Carr ranks fourth in completion percentage (69.3) among quarterbacks and seventh in passer rating (104.9).

“He has played well since I’ve been here,” Gruden said. “We’ve improved his supporting cast. I don’t care who you are, what quarterback or what team you play for, the better you run the ball, the better your receivers are, the better you’re going to perform. It’s a combination of him being able to put up with me and some of my craziness. He’s more tolerant now probably, but he’s also a great quarterback. He always has been.”

One who is letting things rip more than usual.

Pro Football Focus defines a big-time throw as one with a degree of difficulty and execution that requires plus accuracy and plus arm strength to set up a big-play opportunity for the offense.

Carr has attempted 25 this season. He attempted 17 all of last year.

“To me, he’s not only being more aggressive downfield, but he’s hitting those shots,” said former NFL quarterback and PFF analyst Bruce Gradkowski. “He has always been a very efficient quarterback. He’s always going to have a high completion percentage. But now he’s adding those big-time throws.

“I think he has always wanted more credit than people have given him. This season, he’s earning it.”

Carr is ranked the league’s ninth-best quarterback by PFF, but his Kansas City game bordered on historic. In the four-point defeat, his grade of 96 against the Chiefs was the second-best in the NFL since 2016 for a quarterback with at least 30 dropbacks. Of his eight incompletions, four were dropped and two were throwaways.

“He was better than Patrick Mahomes that night,” Gradkowski said. “People like the sexiness of Mahomes and how he plays — and he’s awesome, the best — but Carr made every throw you’d want to see. He’s the reason the Raiders have played well.”

College coach belief

Pat Hill isn’t surprised by any of it, not by the quarterback he remembers as a 6-year-old running around football practice at Fresno State, the one he later offered a scholarship and signed.

Hill’s first home recruiting visit when he was named the Bulldogs’ head coach in 1997 was with the Carr family, his target at the time being older brother David, a future No. 1 overall pick at quarterback by Houston in 2002.

“Derek was at almost every practice, playing football with my kids,” Hill said. “He’s a football guy with great leadership qualities. Just an outstanding leader. It was a great advantage for him to be around his brother all those years. And now, he and Gruden are on the same page. You just see the comfort level between them.”

David Carr declined an interview request through the NFL Network for this story.

Hill sat with Raiders owner Mark Davis at training camp in 2014, the team this particular afternoon scrimmaging the Dallas Cowboys. Carr as a rookie was the presumptive backup to Matt Schaub.

“I told Davis, ‘Carr will be your quarterback this year,’” Hill said. “And he looked at me and said, ‘You really believe that?’ I did. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind. And he was. He’s just a special guy.”

A spiritual one, too.

Man of faith

He was able to smile faster this week than first imagined when coming off the performance in Atlanta.

That’s what welcoming a daughter into the world will do. Carr’s wife, Heather, gave birth to the couple’s fourth child and first girl. Talk about a roller-coaster of emotions over just a few days.

“No matter what my job is, someday I’m not going to be a quarterback, so would my job take precedent over my faith, my family?” Carr said. “No. That’s just who I am. My faith is who I am. It would have been nice to come off a big win and then have my little girl. It was a tough loss. Makes you check some things off. Wakes you up. But I was able to hold my baby daughter in my arms for the first time. It regrouped me to get going this week.”

The story goes that shortly after arriving at his first NFL training camp, Carr believed his life might have a different purpose than football. That instead of continuing to play a game, he should follow a different path and become a pastor.

One of those who encouraged Carr to search inwardly before making a final decision was Olson, the man whose routine still keeps Carr awake at night, analzying every aspect of his play.

Carr knows about losing streaks, the Raiders having begun his rookie season 0-10 before beating Kansas City on a Thursday night. So the Jets being 0-11 hardly gives him pause. Certainly not after last week.

There’s too much at stake anyway for anything but supreme focus. The AFC playoff picture suggests that a handful of teams could be fighting for a third and final wild-card spot at season’s end. The Raiders still have every chance to be one.

“I’d pump the breaks on winless teams because I’ll reiterate that the (Jets) kicked the crap out of us the last time we played them,” Carr said. “If we don’t bring it, they will do the same thing again.

“We’re all a work in progress, man. I’ve never been perfect and I never will be. In my life, my faith has given me a foundation not to get too low but especially not to get too high. … In the nicest way, I just don’t care (about others’ opinions). I’m on a mission right now to continually get better and lead this football team.”

For him, it’s all about routine.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.