More chatter about a Derek Carr trade

The Derek Carr rumor mill was quiet for five days after the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the Las Vegas Raiders were listening to trade offers from other teams.

Yet on Sunday, NFL Media backed up that report and stated the Raiders were open to trading Carr or backup Marcus Mariota.

It doesn’t hurt the Raiders to listen to offers. You never now what is going to be offered. But I still don’t think trading Carr is the answer for the Raiders. He is not an elite quarterback, but he’s better than average — and better than-average quarterbacks are difficult to replace. The Raiders need to future out the defense.

The quarterback is not the issue. But we will see what happens.

Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated tweeted Monday that he is hearing that the Raiders are not giving the vibes off that they will trade Carr, but they may be open to dealing Mariota, who is due a large pay increase.

If the Raiders can flip Mariota for a third-round pick, that would be pretty good work.

In the big picture, my plan on this story will remain the same: I’m going to sit back and see what develops and will report everything along the way if, indeed, something is in the works.