Quarterback Derek Carr has said goodbye to the Las Vegas Raiders, seemingly ending his nine-year tenure with the team.
Carr wrote her farewell message on social media on Thursday, saying “It breaks my heart I haven’t had the opportunity to say goodbye in person.”
“We’ve definitely been on a roller coaster in our 9 years together,” Carr wrote. “From the bottom of my heart, I am so thankful and grateful for the years of support you have given my family and me. We have had our share of heartbreaking times and exciting victories, and I have always felt that you were there next to me.
“It’s especially hard to say goodbye because I can honestly say that I gave you everything I had, every day, in season and out of season. It certainly wasn’t perfect, but I hope that I was able to leave you with more than a few fond memories as a Raider fan.”
Adding that “the fire that burns inside me to win a championship is still raging,” Carr wrote that he was looking forward to playing for a new team.
Carr had signed a three-year, $121.5 million extension with Las Vegas in the spring, but the deal allows the Raiders to cut him within three days of the Super Bowl for just a salary cap of $5.625 million.
Carr, 31, was benched for the Raiders’ final two games this season, both losses as they finished 6-11, and he had walked away from the team so as not to be a distraction.
Carr joined the Raiders as a second-round pick in 2014, throwing for 35,222 yards, 217 touchdowns and 99 interceptions in 142 games. He played his only postseason game for Las Vegas in 2021, losing in the wild card round to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Information from ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez was used in this report.