Quarterback Derek Carr was a free agent for a week. The unrestricted free agent market opens in less than three weeks.
Time, as they say, is wasted.
Carr’s brother, David, said Monday on NFL Network that Derek is nonetheless planning to take his time.
“It will be a long processsaid David Carr, via NFL.com. “He wants to do his due diligence and see as many places as possible to get a sense of where he’s going best.”
That’s fine, but his head start in the rest of the market is going to evaporate quickly, especially with Joint Scouting (a/k/a Tampering Central) after only one week. That’s when teams and impending free agents begin to seriously talk turkey.
Carr’s problem is that interested teams already know there will be other options, via agency or free trade. These options, in practice, already exist. (In fact, the manipulation has already begun.)
And for that, and for the same reason Carr takes his time, other teams take their time, too. With a never-before-seen game of musical chairs about to be unleashed, the fact that music started a little early for Carr doesn’t really matter much.
The challenge for every quarterback, including Carr, will be making the right trade at the right time. Teams looking for quarterbacks will move to Plan B etc. The total money in the budget will also evaporate quickly.
