While he gave Derek Carr a lot of compliments, new Saints coach Kellen Moore was noncommittal when asked multiple times during his introductory press conference if Carr will be the team’s starting quarterback in 2025.
Moore, who is less than a week removed from helping the Eagles win the Super Bowl, said that he is excited to go through the process of meeting the players and building his program. That will include a thorough evaluation of Carr and the quarterback position.
“Derek’s a tremendous quarterback in this league,” Moore said, via NFL Media. “He’s a starter in this league. He’s a premier player in this league. … Really excited to team up with him and go through this process.”
Part of Moore’s initial process will be trying to help get the Saints under the salary cap before the start of the new league year, which is less than a month away. New Orleans is currently a league-high $54.1 million over the cap, so the team is going to have to make some cost-cutting moves in the coming weeks.
Carr still has two years remaining on a four-year, $150 million contract he signed in 2023. He has recently said that he has no interest in taking a pay cut in order to remain in New Orleans. Carr currently has the Saints’ largest salary cap figure as he is due $40 million next year and will count $51.45 million against the cap.
Carr did say that he is willing to restructure his contract in order to help the Saints get under the cap.
“I’ll always help the team that way,” Carr told ESPN. “But there’s some things that you put out there that you earned. Even in some cases it could be even worse, but I felt confident when I signed it that this would give the team the best flexibility at the time. … But there’s always a kind of respect as a quarterback you’re like, well still we’re in that respectful lane. ‘We’re good. Build the team.’ But yeah, I wouldn’t take anything less to do this. It’s hard enough putting our bodies through it. And you’re trying to get everything you can for your family for it.”
Carr’s career has been interesting up to this point. The soon-to-be 34-year-old is a four-time Pro Bowler who was in the league MVP mix in 2016 until he suffered a season-ending injury late in the year. Carr led the Raiders to the franchise’s only two playoff appearances since going to the 2002 Super Bowl is the team’s career passing leader.
Carr helped the Saints post a winning record in 2023, but New Orleans missed the playoffs. The Saints were 5-5 last year when Carr suffered a season-ending hand injury. New Orleans finished the season with a 5-12 record.
Carr is just 77-92 in the regular season and he lost his lone playoff game, a wild-card round loss to the Bengals back in 2021. For all of his success, Carr is seldom included in conversations discussing the league’s elite quarterbacks. While his standing among the NFL‘s other current quarterbacks can be debated, Carr is nonetheless a proven veteran and a very viable option for a first-team head coach like Moore who is looking to make a good early impression.
Given the Saints’ salary cap situation, it appears that Carr will have to restructure his contract if he is going to remain with the team. He may also need to do more than that to win over Moore, who is coming off of a successful run as the Eagles offensive coordinator.
