I'm starting to wonder if I've been a bit myopic on Carr over the years. For some reason, I've always kinda viewed him as a mediocre starter who should be a backup, but has been lucky to get into situations where he's difficult to replace. Kind of a Ryan Fitzpatrick lite.
Looking into things lately, even last season, which was viewed as a disappointment, the advanced stats reflect very well on Carr. Apparently, he's great under pressure. I know PFF had him as their highest-rated QB in the NFC shockingly late into the season. Hopefully that means something good about the system he was in.
I'm not sure where all this is coming from that Geno is so much more proficient than Carr in late-game action. I assume it's game winning drives since I know Geno has a few of those. Leaguewide, this past season was a bit of an abberation, as Mahomes had a ton of them in a crazy-ass Chiefs season that defied many statistical standards, but historically, game winning drives are very overrated as a volume statistic. Just last season, the four QBs in the conference championships had five of them combined, which was just one more than Desmond Ridder had on his own. Over the previous two seasons, Kenny Pickett was tied with Geno for third-most. Kirk Cousins had eight of them a few years back which destroyed the rest of the league, with the next highest at five. It's largely a stat of opportunity.
Even still, Carr is third among active QBs in those, and the two ahead of him are Stafford, who was drafted five years before him, and Russ, who was drafted two years prior. He has more than Aaron Rodgers, who became a full-time starter six years before Carr was drafted. Carr has led the league before and had at least three in seven separate seasons, and three with at least five, including one year with seven. He has succeeded in that situation plenty.
I wouldn't say I'm interested in acquiring him because I have concerns he's breaking down physically, but I think there's reason to believe he would do better than expected if he were brought in. I'll bet if both started for the average team for a full season, there'd be a negligible difference in record.