At least one Cleveland Browns defender saw enough of Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr on Sunday, during the Raiders' 27-20 victory over the Browns, to believe that he has the potential to perform like Green Bay Packers star signal-caller, Aaron Rodgers, at some point during his still-developing NFL career. Cleveland corner Tramon Williams, speaking with Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com after a game in which Carr carved up the Browns secondary to the tune of 20 completions for 314-yards and two touchdowns, gushed over the ability that the young gunslinger showed en route to the Raiders second victory of the seasons.
"I don't throw this name around too often, but he kind of seems to have a skillset similar to Aaron, and that's saying something,'' said Williams, via Cabot. "Obviously we don't know if he's going to turn out to be that player, but skillset-wise, he can move, he can do the whole nine, he has a strong arm, a quick release and he can read defenses as a young quarterback. He can make it to that first, that second, that third read.
"He's going to be a good quarterback for a long time in this league.''
Williams went on to explain that he thought, even prior to Carr's performance on Sunday, that the former Fresno State Bulldog was the best available quarterback in the 2014 NFL Draft, even ahead of Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles (No. 3), Minnesota Vikings passer Teddy Bridgewater (No. 32) and even Williams' teammate, young Johnny Football (No. 22).
To be entirely fair, Williams had some inside knowledge on Carr, revealing to Cabot that when he came into the league with Houston, where Carr's older brother, former first-overall pick David, was the quarterback, he would often see Derek at the place where he worked out. While Williams said Carr was "scrawny" then, it's certainly not a word you could use to describe the 2-1 signal-caller now.
And while it's also likely extremely premature to compare Carr, a player with all of 19 NFL games, 405 completions and 26 touchdowns to a player in Rodgers who has four Pro Bowls, two NFL MVP awards and one Super Bowl victory to his name, there are probably few in the league as uniquely qualified to make such a comparison as Williams, who played alongside Rodgers for nine seasons in Green Bay and has known Carr since the blossoming quarterback was just a "scrawny" teenager following around his highly-touted NFL brother.
Still, there's no denying things are looking up in Oakland thanks to Carr's performance, and the efforts of young offensive building blocks Amari Cooper and Latavius Murray.
No other under-25 trio of teammates in NFL history had more pass/rush/receiving yards in a game as Carr-Murray-Cooper in Week 3.
— Gregg Rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) September 28, 2015
