Gruden believes Carr is playing great despite Raiders' 3-11 record

Even though the Oakland Raiders are mired in a lost season, sitting in the AFC West basement with a 3-11 record, head coach Jon Gruden is giving his quarterback, Derek Carr, a ringing endorsement.

"He knows he is carrying us right now on offense. That's what a franchise quarterback is paid to do, but we are doing everything we can to support him, to try and put him in position to audible at the line of scrimmage, fix problems, and move the football and ultimately win games. He really has had us in position to win a lot of these games. It's a credit to him," Gruden said to Scott Bair of NBC Sports Bay Area.

Carr has completed 68.4 percent of his passes for 3,697 yards and 19 touchdowns against eight interceptions this season.

Gruden also noted that Carr is playing with many new players and expects him to continue to improve.

"I think Derek has played great," Gruden said. "Somebody told me he had 3,700 yards and 68 percent completions in 13 games. That's astonishing. With three new guards, losing a right tackle, a feature back, three top receivers. The guy is a hell of a player. The guy is a great quarterback. We are very pleased and proud of what he has done. We know we got to get better around him, and that we will."

Although the first year of Gruden's 10-year, $100-million contract has been a struggle, with both the coach and Carr often receiving the majority of the blame for what's gone wrong this fall, he's established trust in his franchise quarterback, which could bode well going forward.

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