Yahoo Sports’ Dalton Del Don and Matt Harmon discuss Las Vegas’ decision to bench Derek Carr in favor of Jarrett Stidham.

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[CROWD CHEERING]

MATT HARMON: Derek Carr has been benched. Jarrett Stidham is taking over as the starting quarterback verse San Francisco. Obviously, get your thoughts on this.

But let me just say this. This is clear, like, clear as day, they just don't want to pay Derek. There's this clear move that obviously they're moving on from Derek Carr, next year.

And they're just going to bench him these last two games, just to not pay his injury guarantees. Because if he gets hurt, he has the guarantees in his contract activate, they would then be stuck with him next year. It's clear as day, they will either try to trade or cut Derek Carr, in the off-season.

It feels-- I don't know, it feels weird to do this to a guy like Derek Carr, who has been a great-- I mean, a really good player for this franchise. I think that obviously you can get better out of Derek Carr. But you can nitpick the guy all you want.

But my God, like, he clearly cares a lot about the team. He's come out in press conferences this year. It feels pretty shady just benching for a guy like Jarrett Stidham, after this tough scene.

DALTON DEL DON: And this is because if he gets injured in one of the final two games that guarantees his contract next season? Wow. The spread has jumped to 9 and 1/2 at BetMGM. Stidham is quite a downgrade here.

Yeah Carr's, it seems like, the nice-- one of the nicest guys in sports. And one of the most genuine athletes. Did Davante Adams know of this possibility? 'Cause this was a possibility when he came here. I mean, oh man, that sucks.

It's been so frustrating to be a Raider fan for a decade or longer, and now this. This is a fresh-- I know Carr's not a superstar, but man, that's frustrating. That's brutal.

MATT HARMON: I think that well, even if you're Davante Adams, and you knew like the ins and outs of the contract with Derek Carr, you'd think like, Oh, I'm going to come in here and be so good. We're going to be so good together it won't matter, they'll keep him around for the length of his contract. But I would even bet that like I'm sure Adams didn't realize that yeah, there was a clear out for this team.

That was like, talk about that was a cosmetic contract for sure, for Derek Carr. There was all these obvious outs in it. Adam Schefter reports that not only is Jarrett Stidham going to be the Raiders' new starting quarterback.

His backup is now going to be some guy named Chase "Gay-bers?" "Gah-bers?" never heard of him in my life. Derek Carr is going to be inactive on Sunday, against your San Francisco 49ers. So yeah, I'm curious what Davante Adams thinks of this.

I mean, it's-- all the whispers have been forming for a while, that they will either have Jimmy G or Tom Brady, as the Raiders quarterback next year. Obviously there's a Josh McDaniels connection there. A couple-- you know, there's a lot of questions you can ask there. So we'll see what happens with the Raiders, in the off-season.

But for week 17, I mean, what does this do for Josh Jacobs, in a tough match-up? What does this do for Davante Adams, in a tough match-up? Adams has been kind of slumping to end the season anyways.

DALTON DEL DON: Yeah, Dana White claims Brady was coming to Vegas. And Gruden stepped in at the last second to squash that. So yeah, Brady, absolutely. Josh McDaniels, oh man, this is a disaster. McDaniels is there, and no Carr. And Josh Jacobs, just outwardly came out this week and said, he's as good as gone too. So yeah, this obviously hurts all Raiders involved. Josh Jacobs is already facing the worst possible match-up, as I mentioned earlier. The Niners

Haven't allowed any running back to reach even 60 rushing yards in a game this season. So he becomes borderline benchable with Stidham. Hot take alert, start your Niners fantasy D. But yeah, no, this is not great.

I mean, you're starting Adams, because he's Davante Adams. But man, honestly, you're-- I'm looking for alternatives, with Jacobs. But I mean, he's not-- he'll-- I'd still probably rank him startable. But wow, this really hurts his fantasy value, big time.

MATT HARMON: Yeah, this is Jarrett Stidham's first career start. I mean, this is a guy we've seen a little bit of. But this is a disaster. This is a disaster.

DALTON DEL DON: Stidham was really bad, man. I tried to talk myself into him, when I thought Brady was done a few years ago, and looked into him. And a lot of the Patriots coaches were really excited about him.

And him, and he got on the field, it was really, really bad. It wasn't just like a competent. It was like, ooh, this, he's not it.

So yeah, this, maybe I'm wrong. Hopefully I'm wrong, and he's improved. But last we saw Stidham, it was a bottom-three type of performance.

And yeah, this, and the reasons they're doing this? I mean, I don't like to look at anecdotal things like that. But the locker room can't be super happy with this shenanigans. I mean, we're benching a guy over financial reasons? We're benching our quarterback? I mean, are they really going to go out there and like, try there? I don't know, that's a-- it's a messed-up situation.

MATT HARMON: Yeah. Just again, it feels weird to do for-- I definitely think that Derek Carr, you can do better than Carr. You could do a lot worse than Carr, but you could do a lot better. And do you want to commit?

Like, I would totally understand if in the off season they're like, you know what? We're going to trade Carr, or we're going to-- we have to cut him, We have to eat to eat the money, whatever, I would get that. But I don't know, benching him just to avoid like, the injury guarantees for a guy that's been a great Steward of the franchise too, like, who clearly does care a lot.

And I know that doesn't go-- it's still a performance-based business. And his performance is what it is. Like, I think he's an average to slightly-above-average starting quarterback. But man, it just feels weird and I agree with you. I'm interested to see what the locker room thinks of this whole thing too.

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