Derek Carr has had a run of bad luck over the past two seasons on the gridiron when it comes to being injured. This time, Oakland Raiders’ fans are crossing their fingers that this recent bump in the road won’t have a long-term effect on the team and their drive to return the NFL championship to Oakland.

Carr out this Sunday, could miss up to 6 weeks

The last thing the Oakland Raiders want to do is head into battle without their field general, QB Derek Carr. Unfortunately for the Raiders, life without Carr is now going to be the new normal for at least two weeks, according to the latest ESPN report.

Carr suffered a transverse process fracture in his back Sunday against the Denver Broncos.

The injury occurred late in the third quarter following the sack of Carr by Denver’s Adam Gotsis during Oakland's 16-10 loss in the Mile High City Sunday evening. Raiders coach Jack Del Rio was as optimistic as he could be when he fielded questions about Carr’s injury. Del Rio said his injury "could be as short as two weeks -- it could be longer." He later added that Carr could be out as many as six weeks. "He said he's sorry," Del Rio said of Carr. "Great kid. He'll bounce back. I told him that the team will take care of business while he's healing and just get healed up and when he can come back, he'll come back."

Connor Cook, EJ Manuel now in charge of Raiders' offense

The Raiders learned what it is like to play without quarterback David Carr last season, and it wasn’t pretty.

This time around they have a bit more experience to fill the quarterback void. Former Buffalo Bills quarterback EJ Manuel along with Connor Cook will both be active while Carr is healing. Cook was thrown into the fire last season for Oakland at the worst time possible, and the results weren't good.

Cook made his first career NFL start in the playoffs last year filling in for Carr after he suffered a broken leg against the Indianapolis Colts at the end of the 2016 regular season.

Cook finished the day completing 18 of his 45 pass attempts for 161 yards. While he did throw his first career touchdown, he also tossed three interceptions, was rushed the entire contest, and finished the game with a passer rating of 30.0.

Sure, it was not a debut that any player wants to have, however, Cook was a great QB at Michigan State and the more reps he gets, the more he should settle in nicely while filling in for Carr over the next few weeks.

Manuel has more NFL experience than Cook and is more than capable of filling the void for a few games. No matter what the QB rotation looks like over the next few weeks, all the Raiders want to do is stay in contention during Carr's absence.

Right now, Oakland is 2-2 on the season, two games behind the 4-0 Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC West race. Oakland opened the season at 15/1 odds to win the 2018 Super Bowl, however, they have dropped to 18/1 following the Raiders' loss to Denver last week. Those odds will drop a lot more if the Raiders falter during Carr's absence.
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