Written by Paul Gutierez at ESPN.com
The Oakland Raiders will be without quarterback Derek Carr, as he suffered a transverse process fracture in his back Sunday.
Raiders coach Jack Del Rio said Carr’s injury “could be as short as two weeks — it could be longer.” Del Rio 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.”
Carr was injured on a sack late in the third quarter of Oakland’s 16-10 loss at the Denver Broncos on Sunday and did not return to the game.
After being twisted down awkwardly by Adam Gotsis, Carr grabbed at his lower right back and stayed prone on the ground. After several minutes, he was helped up and walked slowly off the field. After being examined in the blue pop-up tent on the Raiders’ sideline, he walked back to the Oakland locker room.
Transverse processes are small projections on the vertebrae where soft tissue attaches, but they have no real role in load-bearing. In football, fractures to transverse processes are not uncommon when there is a direct hit, like a helmet or knee to the back, resulting in bruising and pain at the fracture site.
“Pain,” Carr said Sunday, describing what he felt when he went down. “My back didn’t feel too good.”
Carr suffered a fractured pinkie on his passing hand in late November last season before a broken right fibula ended his season in Week 16. He still finished tied for third in NFL MVP voting.
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