The New Orleans Saints have a quarterback conundrum. The same questions that have haunted them since Drew Brees' retirement have surfaced again.
Who will be the future at QB for New Orleans? It could be Derek Carr over the next two or three years, but he made a strong statement recently regarding his contract outlook going forward with the Saints.
Carr won't take pay cut
According to a report from ProFootballTalk, the Saints QB is not entertaining a pay cut. A restructure is on the table, though.
“I wouldn’t take a pay cut. Yeah, I wouldn’t do that. Especially with what I put on tape. Would I restructure? Absolutely. I’ll always help the team that way. 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
Clearly, Carr believes that he has played well enough to get paid what has already been agreed to in his deal. In this scenario, he's looking out for himself as a veteran quarterback.
It will be intriguing to see what decision New Orleans makes over the next few months, though. They can look to release Carr, but the dead money would be notable for the next two years.
Cutting Carr with a post-June 1 designation would result in an $11.458 million dead-money charge in 2025, with another $28.674 million hitting the cap in 2026. -- ProFootballTalk
On the other hand, they could bite the bullet and keep the QB. He's shown that he can lead the offense to success at times, when many of the players on that side of the ball are healthy. That is another piece of the pie for Carr, though.
Carr's missed time in both of the past two seasons due to ailments, particularly nearly half of the year this past season. That was an important factor in the offensive struggles for New Orleans when they had to turn to Jake Haener and rookie QB Spencer Rattler.
The latter showed flashes of impressive play, but Carr was a better facilitator of the offense in 2024 than either of those options.
We will see which route New Orleans chooses to follow once they hire their next head coach.
