NFL Notes: Bengals Joe Burrow, Raiders, Derek Carr, Texans

Bengals

Bengals OL Ted Karras says that the team needs to be ready to go and start fast in order to make it to the Super Bowl next season.

“We’re in the final four two years in a row,” Karras said, via Bengals.com. “That puts us in the top four, I guess, for the year. There’s no rollover factor; there’s no transitive property in the NFL. We have to come back ready to go. There’s been a lot of history of teams that don’t do well after a long season like that. We’ll do everything we can to start faster next year and our goal is to get back to the championship game.”

• CBS Sports analyst and former agent Joel Corry notes that while Bengals QB Joe Burrow would run into a ton of resistance if he wanted a fully-guaranteed contract, the expectation is that Cincinnati will make an exception to their usual policy of not guaranteeing money outside of the first year for his eventual extension. 
• As far as the details of the deal, Corry thinks a four-year extension makes the most sense to avoid Burrow’s deal becoming excessively dated as the salary cap grows, perhaps exponentially, in the coming seasons. He also thinks Burrow should pursue the second-highest guaranteed money of any quarterback, which would be over $160 million or so. 
• Corry agrees that $50 million a year is a floor for Burrow’s deal and expects the final number to come in closer to $53 million a year if Burrow exploits the leverage he has.

Raiders

• Jeremy Fowler of ESPN gets the sense that some teams potentially interested in a Derek Carr trade will want to rework his contract to facilitate a deal.
• Fowler mentions that this would spread out the guaranteed money over multiple years. However, the Raiders are trading trying to control the trade and haven’t given Carr permission to shop his services, even though he has a no-trade clause in his deal.
• According to Fowler, the Saints are a team to watch for Carr.
• Fowler says that a Carr-Saints connection was “buzzing a bit” at the Combine and New Orleans could be a potential suitor for the veteran quarterback.
• Fowler adds that the Saints have first- and second-round picks from the Sean Payton deal to work with should they need them.
• Beyond that, Dennis Allen coached Carr during his rookie year in Oakland.

Texans

New Texans HC DeMeco Ryans is aware that the team needs to make improvements at quarterback, whether it is with QB Davis Mills or by adding someone new this offseason.

“We understand,” Ryans said, via Aaron Wilson of Click2Houston.com. “We have one quarterback here on our roster, and we have to add more at that position. We know everybody gets excited about the quarterback. The quarterback is one piece to a team. As I’ve seen in San Francisco, what happens when you don’t have that one guy? Is the season over? Are you just booking it? No. How do you build around that quarterback? Yes, we want a great quarterback, but, no, we need a great offensive line to protect the quarterback. We need great running backs, great tight ends, and great receivers. We need a great defense and special teams. We all play together. That’s the awesome part about football is it’s not on one guy’s shoulders to go out there and win the game for us. It’s all about building around each other and playing together. That’s how we’ll win games.”

“I’d like to think to myself that I’ve shown enough,” Mills said of his performance so far. “Personally, I think that my best football days are still ahead of me. There are always going to be questions, and I don’t have full control over that decision. I want to continue developing as a player and as a person. I know my mindset is always going to be the same. I’m just going to put my head down and get down to work regardless of what happens.”