Raiders LT Donald Penn: Derek Carr “nearly 100%”

If 2016 taught us one thing about the Oakland Raiders, it's that they will go as far as Derek Carr's arm and legs will take them. We all brutally found that out when Carr broke his leg on Christmas Eve just before the playoffs were to begin. Without Carr leading the way the Raiders were a shell of the 11 win team they were with him and proceeded to lose in the first round of the playoffs.

It's been about two months since his surgury for that broken leg took place and he has done well at staying out of the limelight during that time. Luckily for us though, we can get updates from his friends and family as they happily discuss his progress. Normally it's been his brother David Carr providing valuable insights to Derek's injury and recovery, but this time it's his left tackle Donald Penn providing the information.

“I texted Derek two days ago and asked how he was doing, checking in, and he texted me and said ‘I’m almost 100 percent,” Penn said in an interview on NFL Total Access on Tuesday. It must have been even better for Penn to get that text since his one and only sack given up on the year happen to be the one that injured Carr.

The freakishly unfair set of circumstances aside, this is great news that Carr believes he is nearly 100% at this point. His brother David jokingly complained that he had already been giving that news but it took Donald Penn saying it to be taken seriously. Either way, no matter who says it, this is the information that Raider Nation needed to hear.

"I tell you guys he's 100 percent but you don't believe me, you have to ask Donald." said David Carr who was also on the episode of NFL Total Access. "He's going to be great. He's good. Walking around already, stretching it out. He can't do a lot for the bone, but he's going to be back. He'll get a whole full offseason in, and that's going to be the best part."

A little caveat to add to David Carr's statement there is that he'll get a whole offseason in a system where he is going to have more leeway in the play calling, which is actually the real best part. You just know a perpetually uplifting personality like Derek Carr is going to take this experience and use it as motivation to do even better when he gets back on the field in 2017. That’s the hope anyway!