Silver Minings: Derek Carr says he hopes people forgive Jon Gruden

Raiders QB sat down with Charles Woodson to talk about the Gruden email scandal

Outside of himself, the person for the Las Vegas Raiders who was most impacted by Jon Gruden’s email scandal is quarterback Derek Carr.

Gruden and Carr had worked together for nearly four years and even lived next door to each other when the Raiders moved to Las Vegas in 2020. The two spent a bunch of time together and clearly developed a special and loving bond.

After all of the emails were leaked, Carr even said during a press conference that he “loves the man, and hates the sin” in reference to Gruden.

In an interview on Fox Sports: NFL between the Raiders’ quarterback and his former teammate Charles Woodson, Carr shared similar sentiments about his former coach. He continued to emphasize how much he loved Gruden and how taken aback he was when he saw the contents of the email.

“I feel bad for everybody that was involved,” Carr said to Woodson. “It didn’t say those things so it wasn’t me, but I still feel the pain because I love that man so much. At some point, hopefully people forgive [Gruden].”

Woodson would follow up on the comment above from Carr, and Carr elaborated on what he means by people forgiving Gruden. The explanation, and more from the interview, can be seen in the clip below.

The Fox Sports: NFL studio crew, which includes Woodson and another Raider legend in Howie Long, weighed in and shared their thoughts on the former teammates’ conversation in the clip below.

Given how much time they’ve spent together, it’s understandable that Carr feels conflicted about Gruden’s departure. The quarterback has handled this situation extremely well, both on and off the field.

He’s said all the right things that don’t condone the coach’s actions, while not turning his back on someone who has supported him over the last several years. And of course, Las Vegas is 2-0 with 77 total points in their last two games, due in large part to the team’s captain stepping up even more as a leader.

Carr has guided the Raiders to a 5-2 record and first place in the AFC West heading into the bye week in the wake of this whole mess. Who knows if or when people will forgive Gruden, but this situation has revealed a lot about the Silver and Black’s signal-caller, all of which has been positive.

In other Raiders’ links:

• 5 lessons learned from Eagles win: check out Williamson’s takeaways from the Raiders’ dominant win yesterday.
• Carr’s spray chart: speaking of Las Vegas’ quarterback, his passing chart was absolutely beautiful against Philly.
• Raiders lead division: this was mentioned above but Las Vegas is in sole possession of first place in the AFC West since the Chargers were on a bye, and they have a two-game lead over the Chiefs as they got humiliated by the Titans.
• Bisaccia calls Carr “voice of Raiders”: more praise for the quarterback’s leadership, this time coming from the current head coach.