Derek Carr

Carr met Heather Neel at the ‘Fresno State University’ and they got married on June 29, 2012. The couple has 2 sons, Dallas (born August 5, 2013) and Deker Luke (born March 16, 2016). His first son, Dallas, was born with a neonatal complication of entangled intestines and underwent three surgeries during infancy.

Carr is a Christian with a very strong faith in God. According to him, the three important things of his life are Faith, Family and Football.

Derek Carr was born on March 28, 1991, in Bakersfield, California, to Rodger and Sheryl Carr. He is the youngest among three siblings. His oldest brother David Carr was chosen first overall in 2002 by the ‘Houston Texans.’ Thus the family relocated to Sugar Land, Texas, and later returned to Bakersfield for Derek Carr’s senior year.

Carr studied at the ‘Clements High School’ in Sugar Land, Texas, and started playing football on the freshman team of the school. In his second year he played as a backup quarterback, but asked to play as a quarterback when another quarterback player suffered preseason injury.

During his junior year, he led his team, ‘Clements High School Rangers,’ to an undefeated season 13-0 before losing the quarterfinals of ‘2007 Class 5A Division 2 State Playoffs in Region 3.’ He received scholarship offers from colleges during his junior year. (In May 2008, he verbally committed to the ‘Fresno State University)

For his senior year, Carr attended the ‘Bakersfield Christian High School.’ He led the ‘Eagle’s’ team to a 12-1 record, and the team won the ‘California Interscholastic Federation Central Section Division V Championship.’ ‘ESPN RISE’ named him the ‘National Football Player of the Week’ on October 29, 2008, and he was also named the ‘2008 All-Area Football Player of the Year’ by ‘The Bakersfield Californian.’ At the end of his senior year, ‘National Private Schools Athletic Association’ selected Carr as the ‘National Player of the Year 2009.’

Carr joined the ‘Fresno State University’ in the 2009 spring semester. He redshirted the 2010 season and in the fall of 2011 he joined the ‘Fresno State Team’ as starting quarterback and played for 3 years for his university team. In 2012, he was awarded the ‘MWC Offensive Player of the Year,’ and won it back-to-back for two seasons; he is second player in the league history to achieve this. For his performance in all the three seasons at the university, he was honored with the ‘2013 CFPA Elite QB Award.’ He was amongst the leaders in various statistical categories among the ‘Mountain West Conference (MWC). He also won the ‘Sammy Baugh Trophy’ awarded to the nation’s top collegiate passer.

At the ‘Fresno State University,’ he set 27 new school records and 21 ‘Mountain West Conference’ records. Carr was chosen the ‘2013 National Football Foundation National Scholar-Athlete,’ for his high academic achievement. He was only the third player in the history of the school to accomplish this distinction.

In 2013, Carr was the lead in total offense (5,199), total passing yards (5,082), passing yards per game (390.9), passing touchdowns (50), among other records. He was selected to the ‘2013 Capital One Academic All-America Second’ team. He played in the ‘2014 Senior Bowl’ as starting quarterback for the South team.

Carr was selected by the ‘Oakland Raiders’ in the 2nd round with 36th overall pick during the 2014 NFL Draft. In May 2014, he signed a four year $5.37 million contract, with $2.2 million as signing bonus.

He became the first rookie quarterback to start a season opener in the ‘Raiders team’ history. During the Week 4 of the season, he suffered a high ankle sprain and MLC sprain and had to leave the game. On October 12, with 4 passing touchdowns, he set a new Raiders franchise record for most passing touchdowns in a single regular season game by a rookie.

Carr won his first NFL game on November, 2014, when he led (previously winless) Raiders to a 24-20 win over ‘Kansas City Chiefs’ and then a 24-13 win over ‘San Francisco 49ers’ on December 7.

At the beginning of the 2015 season, he had an injury to his throwing hand, but later returned to the game by the second week and threw a game winning touchdown against ‘Baltimore Ravens.’ He continued his dominant streak and in January 2016 was named for ‘2016 Pro-Bowl.’

In the eighth week of the 2016 season, Carr won his first ‘AFC Offensive Player of the Week’ against ‘Tampa Bay Buccaneers.’ During this season, he surpassed the record of 10,000 career passing yards and led the ‘Raiders’ to their first playoff berth since 2002.