One of the myriad conversations interim head coach Tony Sparano has had the past week came with starting quarterback Derek Carr. Sparano wanted to make one thing perfectly clear:

” ‘This is your football team, you’re the quarterback. We don’t have time for you to be a rookie right now, this team needs you to step up and be that leader. Don’t sit around and wait to do that.’ ”

Sparano said he needs Carr to be a leader and a top-producing player on a team that lost its first four games and is looking for answers, a way out of the deep hole.

Carr was handed the starting job by recently fired coach Dennis Allen in training camp, with veteran Matt Schaub being replaced in the job that he had been promised after he arrived via trade with the Houston Texans.

Naturally, Carr was thrust into a delicate situation, and he certainly wasn’t in a position to demand respect or trust from his teammates when he hadn’t even played a regular-season game.

Those days are behind him now, even if he has played only four games. It’s go-time now.

“Now, it is my team,” Carr said Wednesday. “It’s what he said, those are his words — ‘it is your team.’ We are past all that kind of stuff. It’s great because now I can just be myself like I have been, but now I don’t have to hold back, I guess.

“You don’t want to step on anybody’s toes. You want to be a great teammate. All of those things, but now it’s kind of like here are the keys, now take it and let’s go. There’s no real easing into it anymore. We’ve already done that for the first four games. Now it’s, ‘You’re our guy, let’s roll. Lead them and let’s go do this thing.’ ”

Sparano said Carr “looked good” in practice Wednesday. He refused to speculate as to whether Carr will play Sunday. He said his focus is upon how well Carr looks in practice Thursday.

However, Carr made it abundantly clear that he intends to play and that it would take an awful lot for him not to play Sunday.

When asked if he intended to wear a brace or either his knee or ankle, Carr said he will stick to the traditional route of taping his ankle and sucking it up in terms of his knee.

“It’s going to take a lot for me not to be out there,” Carr said. “In my head, I was going to play no matter how it felt when I woke up, somehow I am going to get ready to play in the game.”

— Right offensive tackle Khalif Barnes (quadriceps) is the only healthy Raiders player who didn’t practice Wednesday. Carr (ankle, knee), fullback Marcel Reece (quadriceps), linebacker Sio Moore (ankle) and cornerback Keith McGill (groin) were limited.

— Recently acquired wide receiver Kenbrell Thompkins already has made a favorable impression with Carr and his teammates.

“He is going to be really good,” Carr said. “He is very fluid, very athletic. He has a little something to him, which I always like.”

Carr also likes the fact that Thompkins isn’t messing around. Thompkins isn’t sulking over his release by the New England Patriots, moving from the east coast to the west coast, or going from Tom Brady throwing him passes to a wide-eyed rookie in Carr.

“The first time he saw me, he wanted to sit down and he wanted me to go over signals, routes, he wanted me to do all of these things,” Carr said. “Instead of just showing up and saying, ‘Hey, nice to meet you. OK, I’m going to go now.’ It wasn’t like that.

“He wants to learn, and he wants to be out there. He probably is still out there catching balls off the JUGS. It means something to him, to be good at this game and you can already tell.”

Thompkins said he’s still learning the Raiders playbook. But, if called upon Sunday, he said he is healthy enough and prepared enough to make his Raiders debut against the Chargers.

“Whatever they want me to do,” Thompkins said of what he brings to the Raiders. “I’m going to make sure that I compete hard, that I work hard, whatever role they want me to do, make sure I do that at full speed and make sure I do it at the best ability I can.”

Patriots coach Bill Belichick said he hoped to sneak Thompkins through on waivers and then re-sign him to the practice squad. Solid move by the Raiders to place a waiver claim.

Sparano was thrilled by the acquisition, having faced Thompkins several times in the past.

“I know where he’s come from and I know several of the coaches over there,” Sparano said. “I know how he’s been coached. But he’s a player that I’ve played against before and he jumped out at me. I think he brings a little bit different skillset. He’s a big kid that can really run, a smart guy out there on the field, and has been a pretty solid player, a good pro. So we’re excited about him.”

— Sparano said it was a difficult decision to place middle linebacker Nick Roach on injured reserve. At the same time, he said it was apparent that Roach wasn’t getting any better from the concussion he suffered in an exhibition game and there wasn’t a definitive timetable for his return.

Sparano said it was unclear whether Roach’s symptoms would last all season, but it was clear that this wasn’t a short-term issue.

“I don’t know that I had that feeling in the conversations that I had, but it was certainly going to take a little while longer and it was open ended at the end of it,” Sparano said.

Roach was unavailable for comment. He has been sidelined since Aug. 22, when he got hurt against the Green Bay Packers.

— Wide receiver Denarius Moore got deactivated by Allen for the Miami Dolphins game in London. That no doubt came as a result of Moore clanking a pass at the end of the Raiders loss to the Patriots, which the Patriots turned into a game-clinching interception.

Sparano said his policy is to give players a clean slate, and he intends to do that with Moore from this point.

“I’m going to let my eyes do the talking here and continue to evaluate and do those type of things,” Sparano said. “Right now, we’re talking about moving on and we’re talking about starting with a clean slate and all that stuff, and I believe in that.

“One thing that Bill Parcells drilled into my head, literally, is that you start it off with a clean slate and you let your own eyes do the talking for you and kind of believe what you see. So I’m going to go out there and that’s the way I’m going to approach it.”

— For those pining to see more of second-year running back Latavius Murray, here’s what Sparano had to say:

“I’ve been really happy with both Darren and Maurice and really pleased,” Sparano said. “Again, unfortunately we haven’t had a chance to really ride those guys a little bit. We want to get to that. We want to get to a point where we’re doing that. But Latavius I’ve been impressed with because he’s been really unselfish. He’s done a really good job on special teams for us in several areas.”

Sparano also reiterated his desire to run the ball more. For that to happen, though, the Raiders need to keep games close and the situation conducive to a heavy run load.