Derek Carr Says Vontaze Burfict Is No Monster, 'He's Misunderstood'

Derek Carr is going to bat for his Oakland Raiders teammate, Vontaze Burfict -- insisting he's not the violent monster people think he is ... he's just misunderstood.

The Raiders QB was asked about the linebacker Wednesday morning after the NFL suspended Burfict for the rest of the 2019 season for a dirty hit on Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle.

The NFL justified its severe punishment based on Burfict's well-documented history of dirty hits throughout his career ... including a nasty shot on Carr's former Raiders teammate, Antonio Brown.

But, Carr says Vontaze is "a great person" and thinks he's getting a bad rap.

"I think he's one of the most misunderstood people in the NFL," Carr said.

Carr says he didn't know anything about Burfict before the Raiders signed him during the offseason ... but "he quickly turned into one my favorite teammates I've ever had."

"He's one of the most genuine, awesome people I've been around. He's a great teammate. He works his tail off and he's a great guy."

Carr added ... "I know he's had history in other places, but I think people change."

"I don’t think he was trying to hurt that man. The man was going down, you know we can, you see it all the time, there's flags flying everywhere, but if we think about football, the guy caught it here and he's already going to hit him and he starting to go down, obviously you’re going to hit him a little higher than you expected."

"We see other people choking people out and they're going to play this Sunday. We see other people hitting people in the helmets and they're going to play this Sunday. And, Vontaze won't play for the rest of the year? I think that’s a little excessive if you ask me. I don’t think it's fair."

Carr says Burfict's "heart is broken" over the suspension ... "He just wants to play football."

Raiders head coach Jon Gruden also weighed in on the punishment ... saying, "It hurts our team really bad. And, I'm anxious to see what the appeal says. I'm not happy about it, at all. And, I don't want to say anything else about it. I'm obviously upset about it."