Because the Saints decide in the event that they need to make a big quarterback funding, they’ve one other subject to cope with concerning their present starter. Whereas coming to New Orleans as one of many NFL’s most sturdy gamers, Derek Carr has run into frequent well being considerations.
His newest includes a shoulder illness, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport. This subject might have an effect on Carr’s regular-season availability, Rapoport provides, as surgical procedure is being thought of. Carr missed seven video games final season, seeing indirect and hand accidents result in the low attendance quantity. The Saints restructured Carr’s contract just lately, locking within the 11-year veteran for at the very least yet one more season and making a 2026 separation extra pricey.
Previous to coming to New Orleans, Carr had missed simply three video games attributable to harm in 9 Raiders seasons. A kind of was a playoff recreation attributable to a damaged leg suffered in Week 16 of the 2016 season. Carr returned in time for the 2017 marketing campaign. With the Saints, nonetheless, the skilled starter continues to see hurdles seem. This newest comes at a reasonably vital time, as a Saints franchise that has not chosen a quarterback within the first spherical since Archie Manning (1971) considers breaking that streak.
It’s unclear how or when Carr suffered this harm. With the Saints’ huge dead-money numbers tied to Carr’s contract stemming from signing bonus proration and void years, an offsite harm affecting ensures wouldn’t matter considerably with regard to an earlier-than-expected separation. However Carr’s offseason outlook actually appears cloudy in gentle of this information. The 2023 signee stays signed by means of 2026.
Carr suffered an indirect tear in Week 5 final season; the difficulty sidelined him for 3 video games. A fracture on his nonthrowing hand, suffered in Week 14, moved Carr out of the image to shut the season. Whereas some uncertainty cropped up between the Saints’ Kellen Moore HC rent and the workforce’s choice to undergo with one other restructure, Carr had been penciled in to proceed because the workforce’s starter for some time. Because it stands, the Saints usually are not ready to be with out their first-stringer. The workforce has resisted requires a rebuild, with Carr the principle obstacle at this level. A surgical procedure that would sideline the starter for a part of the 2025 season would stand to influence the workforce’s pondering within the draft, however a precedence of discovering a long-term successor will naturally be extra essential through the late-April occasion.
The Saints have been intently tied to Quinn Ewers as a possible Day 2 choice, whereas a latest report didn’t peg them as surefire Shedeur Sanders suitors. As presently constructed, the Saints wouldn’t current Sanders or one other rookie with a fantastic alternative to hit the bottom operating. They’re coming off a 5-12 season and did add a lot of observe to their roster on offense. The perennially cap-strapped workforce is once more out of these woods, however the choices for including a short-term stopgap are minimal proper now. Ex-Day 3 picks Spencer Rattler, the workforce’s major Carr alternative in 2024, and Jake Haener stay rostered.
Joe Flacco simply joined the Browns, and the Seahawks accomplished a QB reunion of their very own — with Drew Lock. That takes two clear choices off the desk, leaving Carson Wentz and a possible Ryan Tannehill unretirement as unexciting options. Aaron Rodgers technically stays a free agent, however he has been hesitant on any non-Vikings-based likelihood to proceed his profession. Rodgers displaying a lot curiosity within the Saints would shock, and it’s nonetheless too early to take a position on full-fledged options as a result of lack of expertise about Carr’s harm. However that is clearly a priority that may have to be intently monitored.
