Vet QB carousel continues to percolate … For the second year in a row, the veteran FA QB market needs to be sorted out to bring which teams will actually need to address the position at the 2023 draft. The first domino fell, of course, when Tom Brady announced that he was in fact retiring again, only this time for good. And we’ll take him at his word! Next up then is Derek Carr of Las Vegas. The raiders have reportedly given Carr permission to talk with other teams about a possible trade. There is a catch, though, and that is Carr can only talk with teams that have agreed with the Raiders’ compensation demands and according to the Las Vegas Review-Tribune, no team has yet to agree to what the Raiders are asking. In fact it isn’t clear that any other team has even talked with the Raiders and we certainly don’t know at this time what Vegas is asking for. However, the clock is ticking on the Raiders as Carr’s 2023 salary of over $40M will be guaranteed if he is still with team on February 15th, which for the record is just 11 days away and as of today Carr is adamant that he won’t be extending that deadline. On the other, if Carr is outright released prior to that date the Raiders would only have to absorb a $5.6M salary cap hit. As a result, there may not be a whole lot of incentive for other teams to look into trading for Carr if he is almost assuredly going to be a free agent within a couple of weeks. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, annual soap opera in Green Bay regarding Aaron Rodgers is well into another season. On the one hand, the 39-year old Rodgers, who is under contract with the Packers for the 2023 season, has to decide if in fact he wants to play another season and/or in Green Bay. At the same time, the Packers, who appear to be somewhat of a rebuild mode, may want to simply move on and give the ball to former first rounder Jordan Love to find out if he could be the answer down the road. As a result, there’s considerable speculation that Rodgers could end up either in New York with the Jets, who appear to have pretty much given up on Zach Wilson whom they selected with the second pick overall in the 2021 draft, or with the Raiders in Las Vegas (see above) where he would be reunited with Davante Adams his long-time go-to receiver with the Packers.
The other huge QB story of the day is in Baltimore where the Ravens and free-agent-to-be Lamar Jackson remain locked in a contract stare down. Speculation around the league is that the Ravens will franchise Jackson if they can’t get him signed to an extension by March 7th. At the same time, though, there is a quiet buzz about if the Ravens can’t come to terms with Jackson they might very well consider the tag-and-trade option with whispers about Atlanta being a possible landing spot continuing to swirl. The Falcons do have the 8th pick in this year’s draft and with that pick plus their own (#22), the Ravens could have the ammunition to move up closer to the top of the first-round to get one of this year’s top-rated passers. Again, stay tuned!
