Quarterbacks

Derek Carr set career-highs in passing yard (4,054), yards per attempt (7.9), adjusted yards per attempt (8.0) and completion percentage (70.4) last year. But he also had just 21 touchdown passes, with more than 250 yards through the air and multiple touchdowns just four times. So a QB17 finish was not too surprising.

In his six NFL seasons, Carr has finished as QB20, QB14, QB9, QB19, QB18 and QB17 in fantasy.

Carr is outside the top-25 quarterbacks in Fantasy Pros’ ADP. He may not last all 16 games as the starter (more on that to come), and in a broad sense he’s going to put a ceiling on the the Raiders’ offense.

Carr is a QB2 for fantasy purposes, nothing more, and he’s not one you’ll be excited to have.

Marcus Mariota was an apple of Gruden and Raiders’ GM Mike Mayock’s eyes in their previous lives as analysts. They signed him to a pretty nice contract for a backup, with robust incentives if he starts a lot of games and succeeds.

Mariota never was able to get comfortable in Tennessee, with constant change at offensive coordinator. But as a second-year man in 2016, he was efficient as a passer (26 touchdowns, nine INT) and productive as a runner (349 yards, 2 TD) on his way to finishing as QB12 in fantasy. If that is still in there somewhere, Mariota may only need an opportunity in a better offense to be a fantasy producer.

If Carr struggles early and a change is made, Mariota will be on the waiver wire radar.