Raiders Film Room: New QB coach Brian Callahan's assignment — work on these details with Derek Carr
By Ted Nguyen 11 hours ago
Last summer, the Raiders gave Derek Carr the most lucrative contract a quarterback had ever received. It was a for a short while, anyway
—not long afterwards, the Detroit Lions' Matthew Stafford received a contract extension worth over $10 million more.
However, the Raiders hurt their $125-million investment by firing offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave in the same offseason. Though Carr denies it, Musgrave's replacement Todd Downing was one of the root causes for the QB's regression in 2017. Downing's lack of experience and inability to adjust caused a lot of frustration within the organization and ultimately put Carr in losing positions. Downing's shortcomings were really highlighted in Week 3 against Washington when the offense couldn't adjust to Washington's zone defense for the entirety of the game.
Landing Jon Gruden was always part of owner Mark Davis' long-term vision of the franchise, but Gruden couldn't have came at more perfect time, because Carr
— the franchise's biggest investment
— needs fixing. So far, Gruden's hirings on the offensive staff and everything those new coaches have said are all pointing toward that assignment.
Gruden hired Greg Olson as his offensive coordinator. Gruden will be calling the plays, but Olson helped Carr develop his rookie year. His familiarity with Carr will be a resource for Gruden to gain insight into how Carr's mind works and how to work with Carr.
During Olson's first press conference after his return as the Raiders' OC, he
touched on the importance of getting Carr back on track.
“The way we script practices, the way we are doing drills, everything that we do is all about the development of the quarterback,” Olson said. “That will really speed the development of Derek. … We grow as Derek Carr grows.”
Though the Raiders didn't necessarily need a quarterback coach because Gruden and Olson are already going to be working with Carr, they added another well-regarded coach with the hiring of Brian Callahan. The dynamic of how all three coaches will work with Carr will be interesting.
Of course, Gruden will be the main voice in Carr's ear, figuratively and literally. Gruden is calling the plays, so he'll be directly communicating with Carr during games. During team practice sessions (7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills), Gruden will be the one yelling about every detail.
The hiring of Callahan will free Olson to put his attention on the rest of the offense; but again, Olson will likely be more involved with figuring out how to develop Carr by putting him in the best position to succeed. Callahan will help implement that plan by leading the quarterback room and running individual periods during practice.
If his time with the Lions is any indication of his focus with the Raiders, Callahan will be focused on improving Carr's fundamentals, which could use a tuneup. Callahan helped sharpen Stafford's fundamentals. During his two years (2016 and 2017) with Stafford, the QB's interception rate dropped and he had his highest yards per pass of his career in 2017 (7.9 ypa). Stafford's accuracy has been sporadic throughout his career, but he completed over 65 percent of his passes in his two years with Callahan.
In the last offseason, both Callahan and Stafford came up with a list of little things Stafford had to improve on.
“We’re talking body positioning, foot positioning, really, really specific stuff that I think very few people would notice just watching,”
Callahan said.
One thing they noticed in reviewing the film was that Stafford wasn't opening up his chest towards his target consistently enough when throwing to the left, which hurt his velocity and accuracy.
This clip is from 2015. Stafford's chest position wasn't bad on his follow-through, but he definitely could have exaggerated it more
— especially as a right-handed quarterback throwing to his left. The position of the chest allows the hips to open up and generate power from the bottom up.
In the clip above, Stafford's hips don't move enough toward the sideline, which causes him to overcompensate with his arm, which leads to an inaccurate pass.
In this 2017 clip, you can see an improvement in how he opens his chest towards the target. Even though he has some pressure in his face, Stafford is still able to swing his hips into the throw and get a lot of velocity on the pass. He hits his receiver in stride and allows him gain extra yards after the catch.
“But there’s also a lot of throws, I think, if you go back and watch, when we went back and watched them all, we agreed, ‘Man, this could have been a big one,'” Callahan said of Stafford after their film review.
While Gruden will be in charge of the bigger picture and the scheme, Callahan should be in charge of reviewing last year's film with Carr and trying to find a lot of the small things that he can improve on, like he did with Stafford.
A few of those things should include…
Play action
In 2016, when Carr had a bigger sample of play-action passes, his rating was 80.6, compared to 99.9 without play action.
He was very efficient on bootleg passes, but it was the play action with straight dropbacks that he struggled with. This could be a result of Carr playing in a spread system for his entire college career. He never had much experience turning his back to the defense.
Callahan will have to come up with a plan to help Carr know exactly what to look for as soon as he gets his head around after the play-fake. Carr has to know how a defense might move or change while his back is turned to the defense.
On top of that, he needs more practice doing it. Gruden will have an extensive play-action package, so this is a part of his game that he was to be more comfortable with.
Pocket maneuvering
Even before the injuries that Carr suffered at the end of 2016 and the back injury this year, Carr's pocket maneuvering was average at best.
He has the fluidity and athleticism to be so much better in this regard, but it's something that he has to focus on during the offseason.
Carr has trouble knowing when to climb the pocket and when to break it. In this situation, the edge rushers are collapsing hard inside with bull rushes. Carr should use his speed and get outside, but instead he steps up right into where the rushers are going.
It's not easy to simulate a rush in practice besides with a full-contact 11-on-11 session, but those are limited because of the new CBA. Callahan will have to find creative ways to help Carr improve his pocket movement.
Leading receivers better on in-breaking routes from the right
When throwing in-breaking patterns towards his right, Carr has a tendency to underthrow passes which have led to pass-breakups or removal of an opportunity to gain more yards after the catch.
.
On this pass, he doesn't step inside enough with his lead foot, which makes it harder for him to open up his hips toward the throw. You can even see his front foot kick back as he attempts to swing his hips into the throw.
This is something Carr can improve on if he steps more towards the left. It just takes deliberate practice to make it muscle memory.
Obviously, the Raiders had a lot bigger problems than Carr's fundamentals last year. But as Olson said, this team goes as far as the quarterback goes.
Gruden is in charge of the bigger picture and improving the playbook. Olson and Callahan, in particular, will have to make sure that Carr improves on the little things, because without the fundamentals, it makes it much tougher to execute
— it doesn't matter how good the plays are.
