Category: Derek Carr

Derek Carr reacts to Taysom Hill’s injury: ‘It’s bigger than football’

Derek Carr was upset to see Taysom Hill go down with an injury against the Rams: ‘It’s bigger than football in that moment’

Disaster hit the New Orleans Saints late in Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams when star playmaker Taysom Hill left the field with what’s believed to be a significant knee injury. Hill, the reigning NFC Offensive Player of the Week, took a helmet to the knee when running for a first down and was down for several minutes being attended to by the medical staff.

Many of his fans were upset to see him hurt; Hill’s physical style of play and skills as a chess piece who can line up anywhere have endeared him to a lot of supporters. One of those was Derek Carr. The Saints quarterback shared his reaction to Hill’s reaction after the game.

“It’s the worst,” Carr told reporters, adding that he hadn’t yet heard details about Hill’s status. He continued, “Just as a brother, as a friend. It’s bigger than football at that moment.”

Carr has gone on the record to call Hill one of the best football players he’s ever shared a field with, so he was right there with many Saints fans watching worriedly when No. 7 went down. And he appreciated the cheers of support for Hill as he was carted off to the locker room.

“I love how our fans treated him. I expected nothing less from our fans. The way they treated him,” Carr reflected. “It was not not a good time for him but that was really cool.”

Here’s hoping Hill’s injury isn’t as severe as it looked, but the Saints are bracing for the worst. Stay tuned for updates.

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Derek Carr details the benefits of Saints’ new fast-paced practice

Darren Rizzi picked up the tempo at Saints practice on Wednesday. Derek Carr said it’s been a long time since he ran that many plays in practice:

Darren Rizzi’s first practice as the interim coach of the New Orleans Saints was extremely fast paced. Every coach has their own individual style and certain tweaks were expected when making the switch to Rizzi from Dennis Allen. While Klint Kubiak is still coordinating the offense, Rizzi is putting an emphasis on time on task at practice.

It started with the locker room layout, then shifted to coaching staff changes, and the latest change is the pace of practice. Derek Carr described the practice as “Extremely fast. Upbeat, fast, nonstop moving.”

Carr said, “That’s the most plays we’ve ran in a practice in my career in a long time.” The increase in plays gives more time to hone in on specific looks and also attack a larger array of objectives.

Rizzi’s approach should lead to a greater attention to detail and, in turn, lead to better performances. That’s the quarterback’s hope as well. Carr added: “You get more time on task on something, we get better at it. Lord knows we need to get better at what we’re doing right now.”

It’ll be interesting to see how consistently they use this pace throughout the week and the season. The benefits are there, but it may simply be unsustainable on the regular. Regardless, it’s a change of pace that hopefully leads to change of results.

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Derek Carr on Dennis Allen’s second firing: ‘This one was harder’

Derek Carr has seen Dennis Allen get fired in the middle of the season twice, but the pill was tougher to swallow the second time:

Derek Carr is far from unfamiliar with the process of changing head coaches. Darren Rizzi will be the seventh head coach of Carr’s career. This is the third time he’s witnessed a midseason coaching change.

This one in particular hits a little different because it’s the second time he’s seen Dennis Allen be fired in the middle of the year. First time it happened was as a rookie with the Oakland Raiders, and the second time was obviously this week with the New Orleans Saints.

“This one was harder. The first one was like three games into my rookie year,” Carr said. That first moment was kind of like a welcome to the NFL moment and left Carr thinking “Dang, this is the NFL?”

It may not have been just four games, but Carr felt like this run was short too. Over the course of three seasons, Carr has played a total of 27 games under Dennis Allen. The pairing hasn’t equated to success, but they’ve closer since Carr’s rookie season, making this a tough pill to swallow.

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Dennis Allen and Derek Carr make unfortunate history together

Dennis Allen and Derek Carr made unfortunate history together. Allen is the first NFL coach to be fired by two teams with the same starting quarterback:

There are many head coaches who have been fired from multiple teams. Dennis Allen is the first head coach in NFL history, however, to be fired from two teams with the same quarterback at the helm.

Derek Carr was with Allen with the Oakland Raiders for a year and has been a part of of the New Orleans Saints since 2023. You may wonder why Allen would partner up with Carr again if the first attempt ended so badly.

In Allen’s defense, it wouldn’t be fair to point to Carr as the reason he was fired in Oakland. Allen lasted just four games into Carr’s rookie season. Not only is a player not truly developed as a rookie, the partnership lasted less than a handful of games. The issues in Oakland went further back than Carr’s tenure.

Allen handpicked the veteran version of Carr as the quarterback who was supposed to solve the issues. That didn’t happen. Unlike in Oakland, Carr played a big role in this firing.

Long stint or less than a season, veteran or rookie. The fact each time Dennis Allen lost his job as head coach Derek Carr was the quarterback is a very unfortunate piece of history that likely won’t be replicated any time soon

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Derek Carr just tied an unfortunate Archie Manning record

Derek Carr’s loss to the Panthers on Sunday tied an unfortunate record with former Saints quarterback Archie Manning:

New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr has tied one the most unfortunate records a signal-caller can have as of Sunday afternoon, in addition to the fact he has now been defeated by 31 different teams.

That’s not precisely the return he wanted after missing several weeks due to injury, and there were several Saints fans were hoping that Carr’s return would instill some new life into the offense. Instead, Carr just tied former Saints quarterback Archie Manning’s to hold one of the NFL’s most unfortunate records.

Over 11 seasons, Manning lost a total of 91 games. Carr has officially matched that exact number. His brother, David Carr, is also high on the list in terms of losses as a starting quarterback. Here’s a look at the full breakdown of all of that:

  • 4 seasons: David Carr (43)
  • 5 seasons: David Carr (53)
  • 6 seasons: David Carr (56)
  • 7 seasons: Derek Carr (63)
  • 8 seasons: Derek Carr (70)
  • 9 seasons: Derek Carr (79)
  • 10 seasons: Derek Carr (87)
  • 11 seasons: Derek Carr and Archie Manning (91)

While it was technically a close game, not a lot went incredibly right for the Saints as they faced one of the worst teams in the NFL in the Carolina Panthers, still managing to fall 23-22 while being a slight favorite.

Carr finished the game 18-for-31 passing for 236 yards with 1 touchdown. His injury did hinder the Saints, but it is apparent there are far more things wrong with the team than just injured players and it’s reasonable to expect there will be a large amount of turnover when the season concludes.

With that, the Saints are now on a seven-game losing streak. They will face a tough task in snapping that with the risk of getting swept in the series by the Atlanta Falcons in New Orleans next Sunday.

For now, the Saints simply have a lot of thinking to do.

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Derek Carr just made NFL history in the worst possible way

Derek Carr just made NFL history in the worst possible way. He’s the first quarterback in NFL history to lose to 31 different teams:

Derek Carr just made NFL history in the worst possible way. He’s the first quarterback in NFL history to lose to 31 different teams, having fallen short against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

Between his time with the New Orleans Saints and the Las Vegas Raiders, Carr has now taken a loss to every team active in the league except for his old Raiders squad. They’ll have an opportunity to beat him themselves later this season.

It’s not where you want to be. But the Raiders moved on from Carr for good reasons. The Saints are finding out what some of those reasons were for themselves. He never found playoffs success with the silver and black, and that trend has continued now that he’s playing for the black and gold. He just might be a regular season quarterback like Ryan Tannehill was before the Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans jettisoned him, too.

Maybe Carr can be a winner if everything around him is going perfectly, like it did in the first two weeks this season. But at this point the sample size is large enough to make it clear he won’t be consistently elevating his teammates week in and week out. So what comes next? That’s for general manager Mickey Loomis to decide.

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Derek Carr tempering expectations in return from injury: ‘I am no savior’

Derek Carr is setting expectations ahead of his Week 9 return from an injury: ‘I am here to be a great leader and to be a great teammate’

Derek Carr set expectations ahead of his Week 9 return from an injury. He knows he can’t fix all the New Orleans Saints’ problems on his own, and he downplayed the pressure that comes with a starting quarterback returning amid a six-game losing streak.

“I am no savior. There’s only been one of those and that is not me,” Carr told reporters Wednesday. “I am here to be a great leader, and to be a great teammate, and to do my job to the best of my ability.”

Carr missed the last three games with an oblique muscle injury — an uncommon issue in football that’s typically seen in athletes for other sports. Rather than a pain tolerance challenge, it’s limited Carr’s range of motion and ability to wind up and throw with force. So he’s had to stand by and watch his team go out and compete and lose games without him.

Still, like he said, his return isn’t going to cure everything ailing them. The offensive line needs to hold up in protection. The receivers need to get open. Dennis Allen’s handcrafted defense needs to stop the run and  pressure the opposing quarterback. Their inability to do those things consistently has cost them six games in a row, on top of Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener’s struggles during Carr’s three-game absence.

But getting Carr back should help in some phases. Rattler took some sacks and misfired some throws that Carr would handle better. Erik McCoy’s injury has forced the quarterbacks to make protection adjustments at the line and that’s something an established pro is better prepared for than a rookie. Now, will it make a difference? It ought to, especially against a Carolina Panthers team the Saints beat once already, but you never know. One NFL team can upset another on any given Sunday.

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Dennis Allen says the Saints could have their starting quarterback against the Panthers

Dennis Allen says the Saints could have their starting quarterback against the Panthers. Derek Carr is undefeated against Carolina:

Dennis Allen says the New Orleans Saints could have their starting quarterback in the lineup against the Carolina Panthers. Derek Carr is undefeated against Carolina, having beaten the Panthers twice when he was with the Raiders. He’s won three in a row against them since joining the Saints including a blowout 47-10 victory to start this season.

So how likely is he to suit up next Sunday?

“I think there’s a possibility, yeah,” Allen said after Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

Carr has missed the last three games with an oblique muscle injury, which  Allen characterized as more of a mechanical issue than a pain tolerance question. The quarterback twisted his torso awkwardly winding up to throw against the Kansas City Chiefs back in Week 5, which caused an injury that’s proven tricky to treat. But he’s recently begun throwing again and is progressing in his recovery.

Hopefully his return makes a difference. The Saints had already lost three in a row when Carr went down with his injury, but they’ve since fallen further to a 2-6 record. With the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers beginning to pull away in the NFC South title race, it’s vital that the Saints avoid another loss to a divisional opponent this Sunday, with or without Carr in the lineup.

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Derek Carr’s Week 8 injury designation is a bit misleading

Saints QB Derek Carr is doubtful not because there’s a chance he can start in Week 8, but rather to keep the door open in case of emergency:

Derek Carr began throwing the football over the weekend and had a few more throwing sessions this week. New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen is on record saying Carr playing this week was unlikely, but don’t allow Carr’s injury designation to make you think hope is still alive.

The Saints listed Carr as doubtful for one reason. They want to have the option to name him the emergency quarterback. If Carr was ruled out ahead of the game, he wouldn’t be able to assume this role.

Spencer Rattler is the starter and Jake Haener will be his backup. Carr’s ability to be the emergency quarterback is a good sign for his recovery, but it does not mean he’s healthy enough to start a full game and throw 20 or 30 passes. Allen has said before that his issues are mechanical, not related to pain tolerance. If there’s a hitch in his windup or some limited range of motion or torque, it could be disastrous.

Russell Wilson was the Steelers’ emergency quarterback for weeks before becoming the starting quarterback when he was healthy enough to play. That is essentially what this would be if Carr was the emergency quarterback in Week 8.

The Saints went through this process last week, but ultimately opted to make Carr inactive on game day. Still, they kept the door open, and that’s what they’re trying to do now.

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Saints starting QB’s recovery picking up steam as he begins throwing sessions

The door is officially open for a Derek Carr return, as he has begun throwing the football again. His recovery from injury is picking up steam:

The New Orleans Saints have been without Derek Carr for the last two games. The Saints quarterback suffered an oblique injury on his last throw of the game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Spencer Rattler has taken over in the last two weeks and will continue to hold that title as long as Carr is out. It appears Carr is getting closer to returning, as he has begun throwing the football.

Dennis Allen relayed this message on Monday saying Carr “had a throwing session today, he’ll have another throwing session tomorrow, and see where we’re at.”

Carr showed his toughness by fighting through injuries last year. Allen has made it clear this injury isn’t about the ability to grit through pain. It’s about the ability to move. Carr beginning to throw opens the door to a return at anytime.

Allen called Carr questionable for this week’s game before seeing Carr throw, and called a Week 9 return “very likely.” If Carr’s throwing sessions go well enough, we may see an early return. That wouldn’t be known until late in the week, though.

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