The War Room: David Carr, QB 
David Carr
Position: Quarterback
Drafted: Round 1, #1 overall
Height: 6’3"
Weight: 225
College: Fresno State
Birthday: July 21, 1979
NFL Comparison: Troy Aikman
Strengths: David Carr has a cannon on his right shoulder and both feet planted firmly on the ground. Scouts marvel at his maturity almost as much as they do his physical skills.
Almost.
Carr has a strong, accurate arm, as evidence by his high completion percentage (63.6%) and low interception total (18 INTs in 826 attempts) the past two years. During Senior Bowl workouts in Mobile, he successfully threw three, five and seven-step drop passes with ease, and was often seen pinpointing errors and then working to correct them as the week progressed.
He’s strong, durable and deceptively quick; more importantly, he’s a student of the game who learns quickly and is very easy to coach. On the field, he’s a natural leader with plenty of confidence. Off the field, he’s married with a young son, which keeps him grounded and settled; David Carr is mature well beyond his 23 years.
Areas of concern: Carr tends to release the ball near his ear and scouts fear that on the pro level, bigger, quicker defensive linemen will swat a good number of his passes to the ground. Carr compensates with a quick release, but the Texans will nonetheless explore changing his mechanics.
Carr is far more comfortable passing from the pocket than he is trying to make plays outside of it. He doesn’t force the ball and has decent quickness, but if you flush him, you can rattle him.
He also needs to work on taking some zip off his short passes. Several receivers at the Senior Bowl complained that Carr was throwing the ball too hard. It’s not a tremendously worrisome problem, but it is an area he’ll likely focus on this summer.
2002 Expectations: Kent Graham, the only quarterback currently on the roster with extensive NFL experience, is only signed for one year, so it’s pretty obvious Chris Palmer is going to hand Carr the keys full-time in 2003.
In the meantime, expect him to take a few test drives this year at the very least — how much will likely depend on how quickly Carr acclimates himself to the speed and ferocity of the NFL game.
And when he does play in 2002, get ready for plenty of mistakes, mixed with flashes of "Ohhhhhhh… so that’s why they drafted him first overall" moments. And expect Carr to handle all the hype and pressure like an experienced pro.
YEAR GS ATT COM % YDS TD INT 2001 13 477 309 64.8 4,308 42 7 2000 12 349 216 61.9 2,729 23 11 1999 (REDSHIRTED) 1998 0 41 22 53.7 228 1 1 1997 0 11 5 45.5 53 1 1 TOTALS 25 878 550 62.6 7,308 66 20 
David Carr 
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