Raiders might find it hard to trade Derek Carr before their February 15th deadline

Derek Carr is on the Las Vegas Raiders team by default at this point and by February 15th, he will either be traded or cut. The reason the Raiders need to get him off the team by then is so his $32.9 million base for next year and $7.5 million of his 2024 money vests as fully guaranteed, per Albert Breer. Breer goes into detail on the moving parts in his latest column, but clarity remains tough to find at this point.

Interested teams could wait until Carr is cut before trying to bring him in, but if they really want him, it would make more sense to try to facilitate a trade. But, a trade as is would mean the team would be on the hook for the money the Raiders don’t want to pay him and the interested team could be I the same boat.

There is a chance that Carr would go along with a contract adjustment to make his contract more appealing to a trading partner. That would look better than being cut and if the trade partner was a team he really wanted to go to, he could help facilitate something.

The quick need for a trade is what might hurt the Raiders chances to trade him the most. There are going to be some names out there in free agency and in trade rumors that teams might not want to skip on to bring in Carr as the starter. Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Jimmy Garoppolo, Geno Smith and Daniel Jones are probably the most coveted possibilities.

Carr does have a no-trade clause, so in the end he should be able to find his way into a good situation or at least a starting job. As usual, there are more QB needy teams than starting caliber quarterbacks out there.