The Las Vegas Raiders released their starting quarterback of the past nine years on Tuesday.

The Raiders indicated they were moving on from Derek Carr last season, when the NFL team sent him home for the final two weeks and used former Auburn standout Jarrett Stidham under center.

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But does the release of Carr mean Las Vegas is ready to turn the offense over to Stidham?

Not as things stand. Stidham is going to follow Carr into free agency in one month unless the Raiders sign him to a contract extension before March 15.

When Las Vegas traded for Stidham last offseason, he had one season remaining on his rookie contract.

With Carr freshly signed to a three-year, $121.5 million contract extension, Stidham’s role in the Raiders’ quarterbacks room appeared to be as a facilitator of new coach Josh McDaniels’ offensive playbook. Stidham had spent the previous three seasons with the New England Patriots, where McDaniels worked as offensive coordinator.

But Stidham made the first two starts of his NFL career in the Raiders’ final two games of the 2022 season.

Stidham completed 53-of-83 passes for 656 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions and ran for 84 yards on 14 carries against two of the NFL’s best teams as the Raiders lost 37-34 to the San Francisco 49ers and 31-13 to the Kansas City Chiefs.

“We’ve been around him for numerous years, but never saw him play four quarters of an NFL game on a Sunday, and that’s a big change,” said Raiders general manager Dave Ziegler, who also joined Las Vegas from the Patriots. “There’s a lot of guys that perform well in the preseason, perform well in practice, but on Sunday when the lights are on and the speed of the game is what it is and you have an opposing defensive staff that’s game-planning for your team and to stop certain things, it’s a whole different beast. And so, there was still a lot of unknown, even though we had spent time with him, of how he would do in that situation.

“I think the positive thing that he showed is that, on a very basic level, he could go in there and move the team. I think there’re a lot of quarterbacks that get that opportunity that just struggle with that. They struggle to move the team. And a lot of that comes with knowing the offensive system, preparation, but also confidence and football intelligence to be able to go out there – I think what we saw from him was he could go out there and problem-solve a little bit. And that’s a really hard thing to do is to be able to go out and adjust plays, understand coverages, make the adjustments to get our team in the right play. He showed the ability to do that. I think he also showed a lot of poise, moxie, some confidence in the way that he played. He was decisive with the football, whether it was a decisive decision to throw the football or pull it and run, and he showed a really good competitive spirit and some arm talent, too. There were some specific throws he made in those two games that were good football throws, so I think he showed a lot of good things, but it is a two-game sample.

“And so you have to temper exactly how high or how low you get because it is two games, and that’s not a large body of work to make, I would say, to have a put-your-fist-down-on-the-table, you-know-what-it-is type of thing.”

If the Raiders don’t re-sign Stidham, the only quarterback on the Las Vegas roster when the NFL’s 2023 business year starts at 3 p.m. CDT March 15 will be Chase Garbers, who spent most of his rookie season on the Raiders’ practice squad before being called up to back up Stidham in the final two games.

Early offseason speculation had Las Vegas as the possible next destination for Tom Brady, but he retired. The Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Rodgers also is a favorite name to drop as the Raiders’ next quarterback.

But one sportsbook has the San Francisco 49ers’ Jimmy Garoppolo as the favorite to be Las Vegas’ opening-game QB starter, with Stidham sandwiched between Garoppolo and Rodgers as the top three betting choices. Garoppolo spent the first three seasons of his NFL career working with McDaniels in New England.

The Raiders released Carr because if he had been on the roster on Wednesday, his $32.9 million salary for the 2023 season and $7.5 million of his 2024 salary of $41.9 million became guaranteed. By releasing Carr, Las Vegas escaped $40.4 million in obligations to the quarterback and created $29.3 million of space on its 2023 salary cap.

Carr’s contract had a no-trade clause, which he declined to waive, although he did visit with the New Orleans Saints over the weekend.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.