Can Raiders, Derek Carr, win turnover battle in the regular season?

A lot went right for the Raiders in the preseason as they racked up a perfect 4-0 record. Perhaps most notably, Las Vegas didn’t commit a single turnover.

But the Raiders’ most turnover-prone player, quarterback Derek Carr, has yet to play a snap in 2022.

This leads to an obvious question: can the Raiders continue to hold on to the football as Carr, who has more lost fumbles than any player in the NFL since 2014, enters the fray? Especially with an apparently suspect offensive line?

Carr plays a turnover-prone position, as all of last year’s league leaders in that category were quarterbacks. Carr’s issue is an excess of fumbles, however. He talked about his need to improve in that area before the 2021 campaign.

Here’s part of what Carr told The Athletic about this issue last year, after he fumbled 11 times in 2020, losing eight, which led the league.

There are literally some that you can’t avoid.

But the one thing that I am doing is that I know I can do it better. I know there are a good majority of them where I am like, “Bro, just get the ball out of your hand. Bro, hold on to the ball.” There are some where people are hitting me and I am trying to do too much. I am trying to toss the ball with guys holding on to both my arms. It’s not from a lack of effort or want-to. I am trying to get it to somebody.

We’ve watched every single fumble. And we were honest about what was the reasoning behind them. And we rep the ones that I control every day with (coach Greg Olson). All offseason, we repped it.

After Carr paid extra attention to the issue, he still fumbled 13 times in 2021. Luckily for Las Vegas, only five fumbles were lost to the opponent.

So is this the year that Carr holds on to the football when he faces duress in the pocket? New coach Josh McDaniels consistently praised his backup quarterbacks in the preseason for doing just that. Carr is, of course, expected to do the same.

McDaniels had plenty of examples to point to in the preseason, as the Raiders’ offensive line was his team’s most suspect group and allowed a lot of pressure. They displayed some improvement in the preseason finale against the Patriots, however, and star left tackle Kolton Miller will make his debut in Week 1, just as Carr will.

McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler will likely look to improve up front in the weeks ahead, as teams cut their rosters down to 53 players. But it’s reasonable to assume that the line, especially the right…