Rich Gannon still plans to mentor Raiders QB Derek Carr, thinks he has elite ability ‘I’m anxious to see him get there’

For the same reason Gruden cited that he turned down the Raiders head coaching job on four previous occasions, Rich Gannon has decided to turn down the opportunity to be Gruden’s QB coach. As he announced on the radio today, Gannon likes his job as an analyst for CBS and couldn’t commit to being ‘All in’ on the Raiders job.

The idea of helping out Derek Carr still excites him, however. That much became clear when he covered the team’s season finale in Los Angeles. He met with Carr and afterward had a great deal of things of say about how he would fix his issues from last season from a fundamental standpoint as well as how he thinks Carr can improve as a leader on the football field.

So, though he may not be the Raiders’ QB coach, or even an official consultant, he plans to continue to work with Carr in any way he can.

“I’m gonna sit down with a number of different people and just figure out is there a role that I can help and really just be a mentor to Derek,” Gannon said Wednesday. “I talked to Derek for a little bit yesterday. I talked to him a week and a half ago, so I’m going to talk to Derek a lot about the mental part of it. I’m going to talk to Derek a lot about the preparation, about the attention to detail, about the schedule, about what he needs to accomplish on Monday, Tuesday, and different things like that that maybe the coaches won’t get into.

“I’m gonna share with him what works for me and what I did and some of the secrets that I developed over my 18-year career which I haven’t really shared with a lot of people. So, I’m gonna try and help where I can and I think he’s open to that.

“Not only that, but I’m going to help him try to understand Jon Gruden. How is Jon wired? What does he like? What doesn’t he like? What will frustrate Jon. How to deal with Jon in meetings. Jon can be very intense.”

Even when Gannon isn’t around physically, being a phone call away for Carr when he needs advice is a valuable asset. Gannon has been invited to help out with team’s quarterbacks for 8 different teams during the offseason to see if he might be able to impart some of his wisdom on how the one-time journeyman QB became an NFL MVP and led his team to a Super Bowl at the age of 37.

The Raiders now have several things all those other clubs don’t have and therefore they will get the bulk of the time and energy Gannon has to offer.

“I’ve certainly got a loyalty to Jon, to the Raiders and what they meant to me in my career, and how they provided me an opportunity,” Gannon continued. “I really like Derek Carr a lot. I think the world of him, I think he’s a really talented player and just think there’s more there. As I [told him] yesterday, ‘this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you’ll just buy in and do what’s asked of you, do the little things, you have the chance to win a Super Bowl, or multiple Super Bowls and be an MVP in the league and a Hall of Famer.’ I think he has that ability and I’m anxious to see him get there.”