Category: Derek Carr

Bleacher Report says Saints have given out two of the worst contracts in the NFL

Bleacher Report says the Saints have given out two of the worst contracts in the NFL. We won’t argue about Derek Carr, but they need to lay off of Taysom Hill:

It’s June, which means it’s time for NFL writers to sit back and browse Over The Cap so they can grade teams’ homework. And as always, they’re quick to criticize how the New Orleans Saints spend their money. Bleacher Report’s David Kenyon says the Saints have given out two of the worst contracts in the NFL.

We won’t argue about Derek Carr, but they need to lay off of Taysom Hill. Here’s why Kenyon ranks Hill’s contract sixth-worst in the league:

I’m sure I’ve said it before: The idea of Taysom Hill has consistently been more exciting than his actual performance.

Sure, he had a career-best season with 692 scrimmage yards last season. His versatility is both fascinating and useful for the New Orleans Saints, who utilize Hill at four offensive positions and on special teams.

He is simply not worth the price, however.

This season, after restructuring his contract for a third straight year, the Saints are staring at a $9.2 million cap number. That figure ascends to nearly $18 million in 2025, although New Orleans could—and probably should—make him a post-June 1 cut to save $10 million.

Hill can catch on elsewhere next offseason, but he’s too expensive for someone who might play 50 percent of snaps.

Let’s check those numbers. Of the 184 players with a cap hit over $9 million, including Hill, 99 of them play offense, and 19 of them are starting quarterbacks. Remove the quarterbacks and offensive linemen and you’re left with 42 skills position players who make up Hill’s peers. And out of that group, he’s one of 21 who scored at least six touchdowns last season. Whittle it down further and you’ll find he tied with Courtland Sutton in converting 37 first downs as a runner and receiver, ahead of guys like David Njoku (35) and Mark Andrews (27, though he missed seven games with an injury). That’s right behind Cole Kmet (38) and Brandin Cooks (39). Hill may not draw a hundred targets or a dozen carries per game, but he consistently makes plays when given an opportunity.

The Saints aren’t paying Hill to be an every-down player; they value his utility and work on special teams on top of what he can do with the ball in his hands. And if early returns at spring training is anything to go off of, he’ll have a heavier workload with Klint Kubiak calling plays instead of Pete Carmichael. NFL writers like to point to 49ers fullback Kyle Jusczyk, an eight-time Pro Bowler, as an example of how Hill ought to be used (and, that implies, paid). Jusczyk has earned $40.57 million in his NFL career. Hill has brought in $42.67 million while scoring more touchdowns and gaining more yards than Jusczyk in 83 fewer games, including the playoffs. Still, Kubiak is installing some plays that Jusczyk ran well and that could put Hill in a better position to make more plays.

But enough about Hill. Kenyon ranked Derek Carr’s contract third-worst in the NFL, and he isn’t wrong to do so:

You’d think the perpetual state of living in salary-cap hell would be exhausting for New Orleans, right?

As usual, nonetheless, the Saints used restructures to open space for the next season. This year, it was an expected adjustment with Derek Carr to clear $23 million in 2024.

However, the change also increased his upcoming cap hits to north of $50 and 60 million in 2025 and 2026, respectively. There’s no realistic “out” until 2027, and that assumes no updates to his deal next offseason—which, again, is usually not how New Orleans operates.

Even if the Saints were to make him a post-June 1 cut, their best-case scenario is more than $21 million in dead cap in 2025.

The Saints gave Carr a big bag last season, telling their fans and all the world that they believed Carr was good enough to be the face of their franchise; someone who was talented enough to fix an underperforming offense and guide them back to the playoffs. That didn’t happen. Carr’s shortcomings got the entire offensive coaching staff fired at the end of the year and the Saints are stuck with him for at least another season. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers got back to the postseason with Baker Mayfield playing on a $4 million deal after being cast out by his old team just like Carr.

At least the early word out of spring practices is encouraging. Carr hasn’t seemed to experience as many of the early struggles he’s known for when learning a new system, and Kubiak’s emphasis on motion and play action passing — something Carr has executed well throughout his career — could be good for him. It needs to be. Because, as Kenyon said, the Saints are going to be starting Carr in 2024 and likely 2025, too. Maybe Jake Haener or Spencer Rattler develops into someone who could viably take Carr’s job in a year or two, but that’s a long time to sit around and wait. It’s best for everyone if Carr picks up Kubiak’s offense quickly and dispels the narratives surrounding him. Until that happens his contract is going to keep weighing the team down.

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Mac Jones, Kenny Pickett sold more official merch than Derek Carr did in 2023

Mac Jones and Kenny Pickett were benched and later traded, but the NFLPA says they still sold more licensed merchandise in the last year than Derek Carr:

New Orleans Saints fans haven’t exactly embraced Derek Carr. They’ve kept high standards at quarterback after enjoying so many years of Drew Brees’ excellence, and their hesitance to support Carr after he failed to lead the team to the playoffs may have felt warranted.

That lukewarm reception was backed up by the NFL Players Association annual report on licensed merchandise sales, which didn’t include Carr inn its top 50. Here are the criteria:

The NFLPA Top 50 Player Sales List is the only verified ranking of all officially licensed, NFL player-branded merchandise sold from online and traditional retail outlets as reported by over 85 NFLPA licensees such as Fanatics, Outerstuff, Nike, Fathead, FOCO and Funko. Licensed product categories included trading cards, men’s, women’s and youth game jerseys, T-shirts and hoodies, backpacks, wall decals, pennants, collectible figurines, matted and framed photos, bobbleheads, plush, drinkware, pet products, and many more

While Carr didn’t make the cut, other quarterbacks did — and several of them were benched by the teams they played for last year, traded after the season, or both. Mac Jones was sidelined by the New England Patriots after stumbling to a 2-9 record, and later traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars, but he clocked in at No. 50. Both of the quarterbacks the Pittsburgh Steelers acquired in trades this offseason made the list (Russell Wilson at No. 42, Justin Fields at No. 31), as did their own former first-round quarterback bust Kenny Pickett (No. 34).

So if it felt like there weren’t many Carr jerseys inside the Caesars Superdome last year, you were probably right. Carr needs to do better than what we saw from him last year to win Saints fans over. Another year without reaching the playoffs and on-field chirping with his coaches and teammates won’t convince anyone he’s worth supporting with an autographed photo, refrigerator magnet, or even a trading card. Hopefully he’s up to the challenge.

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This ‘disappointing’ preseason forecast nailed Derek Carr’s final passing stats

We said this preseason forecast would be disappointing for Derek Carr, but Bleacher Report nailed their predictions for his 2023 passing stats:

Opposing defenses weren’t the only ones who found the New Orleans Saints to be too predictable last year. We described the predictions for Derek Carr’s final stats from Bleacher Report as disappointing, but B/R’s Alex Kay had it down almost perfectly. And as we said at the time, this performance from Carr was a disappointment. We had higher expectations for him.

Still, here’s a hat tip to Kay for getting it right. Here are Kay’s predictions compared to the numbers Carr finished with in 2023 in parentheses:

  • 68% completion percentage (68.4%)
  • 3,901 passing yards (3,878)
  • 25 touchdown passes (25)
  • 13 interceptions (8)
  • 30 carries (32)
  • 118 rushing yards (40)
  • 1 touchdown run (0)

So Kay had Carr’s passing numbers down almost perfectly, though they overestimated how many times he’d turn the ball over. Carr was risk-averse to a fault last year and left some big-play opportunities on the field while being too eager to check down to Alvin Kamara or other receivers underneath coverage. Kay also expected Carr to make more plays with his legs than we actually saw.

But this doesn’t mean Carr can repeat this performance in 2024. It’s encouraging that he finished the season so strong; in his last five starts (where the Saints went 4-1), Carr completed 114 of 154 passes (74%) for 1,117 yards and 14 touchdowns, with just 2 interceptions. Extrapolate those averages over 17 games and you’d be left with 3,798 yards and 47 touchdowns against 7 interceptions. It isn’t realistic to expect 47 touchdown passes (the record in a 17-game season is 43, set by Tom Brady in 2021) or a 74% completion percentage but the yardage lines up with what we’ve seen before.

The point is that Carr needs to improve on those numbers. Extending the red zone efficiency he found late last year would be a big plus. Stepping up to make better throws under pressure between the 20-yard lines and playing like a quarterback his team can lean on would be massive. He averaged the second-fewest passing yards per game in his career last season. That can’t happen again. If he continues to underwhelm in a new offensive system, he might just be who he is. And that would be another disappointment.

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Derek Carr ranked as the 5th-worst starting quarterback in the NFC

PFF ranked Derek Carr as the fifth-worst starting quarterback in the NFC, a year after they listed him fifth-best in the conference:

Yikes. Derek Carr has a lot of work to do in changing his reputation around the NFL — he’s consistently landing in the 20’s with analysts ranking the league’s starting quarterbacks after the 2024 draft. The New Orleans Saints starter didn’t exactly impress many viewers in his first season with the team.

He didn’t impress the Saints, either, which is why they completely overhauled the coaching staff supporting him. Klint Kubiak has replaced Pete Carmichael as offensive coordinator with Andrew Janocko taking over as the quarterbacks coach while other positions were flipped, too. But all of that support doesn’t mean much if Carr doesn’t show improvement. It’s on him to play better.

And he may just be who he is at this stage in his career. That’s the thesis coming from Pro Football Focus analyst Trevor Sikkema, who ranked Carr 21st among the NFL’s 32 starting quarterbacks. Here’s his explanation:

What you see is what you get from Derek Carr at this point. His PFF passing grade has finished between 77.5 and 83.5 in four of the past five seasons. Now, I want to be clear, he is more good than bad. His turnover-worthy play rate has never been above 3.3% over that span, and his big-time throw percentage has been as high as 6.7%. But it has long felt like Carr leaves too many plays out on the field.

In 2023, Carr passed for 25 touchdowns and just eight interceptions, but he recorded 17 big-time throws to 14 turnover-worthy plays, a much closer ratio. He remains a frustrating player to watch due to the dichotomy of what he’s capable of versus what he puts on tape.

This put Carr 12th among the 16 quarterbacks in his conference, which isn’t ideal. It’s a steep fall-off after he was ranked higher last offseason. This time last year PFF slotted him at No. 14 overall and fifth-best in the NFC, alongside passers like Kirk Cousins, Matthew Stafford, Geno Smith, and Jared Goff. That sentiment was shared by other offseason quarterback rankings at The Athletic (No. 14) and ESPN (No. 16), as well as NFL Network’s morning shows. He didn’t meet those expectations. Carr averaged the second-fewest passing yards per game in his career last season, so he isn’t seen as someone who can carry an offense these days.

The Saints are betting everything on Kubiak helping to change that narrative. Putting Carr in a better position to succeed with a more creative offensive scheme isn’t the worst plan. But New Orleans is stuck with Carr whether he improves or doesn’t. Trying a different approach with a new play caller is their best (and only) move.

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Derek Carr-Klint Kubiak relationship labeled Saints’ biggest priority

Derek Carr grasping the new offense is a deciding factor in the Saints’ future. His relationship with Klint Kubiak is their biggest offseason priority:

Around the NFL writer Kevin Patra identified the biggest offseason priority for every NFC team, and his choice for the New Orleans Saints is easy to accept. Priorities ranged from navigating contract situations to accumulating talent. The Saints’ priority fell in the middle. Patra said getting Derek Carr on the same page as offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak is the one thing the Saints must do this offseason. Here’s his explanation:

After two years of hoping to replicate Sean Payton’s offense without the master, Dennis Allen finally moved on to a new offense. Kubiak brings tenets of the Shanahan scheme — dating back to the coaching days of Mike Shanahan and Klint’s father, Gary Kubiak — that should fit the Saints’ personnel well. Pre- and post-snap motions, outside zone runs and attacking the middle of the field all set up well for New Orleans’ weaponry. It’s a quarterback-friendly system, which bodes well for Carr, but it’s not a given that the veteran will thrive. He struggled last season amid injuries and inconsistent play. The hope is that Kubiak will smooth out those issues. It’s a massive year for everyone involved in New Orleans. From Allen to Carr and on down. Another season without a playoff berth in a winnable division could be followed by major changes within the franchise. They’re banking on Kubiak turning around an offense that hasn’t found a groove since Drew Brees retired. 

It’s hard to disagree with Patra here. It wasn’t the only problem in 2023, but a better season from Carr likely would have resulted in a playoff appearance last year. Offensive struggles often extended into the third and sometimes fourth quarter. It forced New Orleans into catch up mode too frequently. Kubiak’s offense is supposed to solve that problem.

There’s a stigma of Carr struggling in the first year of a new system. The Kubiak/ Shanahan system is notoriously quarterback friendly, however. If Carr grasps this offense quickly, the Saints playoff chances skyrocket. The Saints knew they needed a change from Pete Carmichael this offseason. It was a necessary move that hopefully pays dividends in the upcoming year.

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B/R says Derek Carr is entering 2024 under immense pressure

This writer says Saints QB Derek Carr is 1 of 6 quarterbacks under the most pressure in 2024. The impact of Carr’s play extends beyond him:

Quarterback is the most important position in football, so determining your starter is, logically, one of the most important decisions you can make. The Saints have been bouncing from starter to starter over the last few years. Barring injury, Derek Carr should be the first quarterback to start the majority of games in back to back seasons since Drew Brees.

If you ask Maurice Moton, Carr will be doing so in a make-or-break season. The Bleacher Report writer laid out six quarterbacks who are entering seasons where they must perform or risk being moved on from:

While the 33-year-old seems like he’s in a stable situation with job security, his 2024 performance can have a major impact on his short-term outlook with the team.

This offseason, New Orleans hired offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak to replace Pete Carmichael Jr., which indicated dissatisfaction with the offense despite Carr’s passing numbers.

Because quarterbacks’ performances have a significant impact on team success, he can strengthen or weaken head coach Dennis Allen’s job security.

Moton was right to tie Carr’s production to Dennis Allen’s job security. If this was an article about coaches in the same predicament. Allen needs victories, and Carr will need to play better in order to achieve that. Carr likely also needs Allen to be the coach to remain the starting quarterback. It’s a revolving circle that all starts with Carr’s 2024 production.

In the new offensive system, a focus should be placed on starting faster. The Saints need to start the season in a better place than they did last year. The offense struggled early in the year, specifically in the red zone. The offense was stagnant in the first half of too many games as well. Starting faster in both aspects is a recipe to more success.

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Derek Carr picked as one of the NFL’s worst starting quarterbacks

Touchdown Wire picked Derek Carr as one of the NFL’s worst starting quarterbacks. Klint Kubiak needs to pull off quite a salvage operation:

There’s going to be 32 quarterbacks starting games in the NFL this fall, but a couple of backups and injury situations make things more complicated when you try to rank them all top-to-bottom. And that quandary didn’t do Derek Carr any favors. When Touchdown Wire’s Jarrett Bailey ranked the top 36 quarterbacks in the NFL, he put the New Orleans Saints’ $150 million man all the way down at No. 26.

Which made Carr one of the game’s worst starters (not counting rookies), ahead of guys like Will Levis (No. 28), Deshaun Watson (No. 31), Bryce Young (No. 32), and Carr’s surprise replacement on the Las Vegas Raiders, Aidan O’Connell (No. 35). Here’s why Bailey is so down on Carr:

Oh dear.

Derek Carr taking a massive step backwards is such a Saints thing to happen. Raw numbers don’t tell the story for Carr. Yes his passer rating was as high as it had been since 2020, but that was an offense that had no chemistry and consistently came up short when it mattered.

Unfortunately for Carr, many of those points hit home. He experienced (and caused) a ton of frustration in 2023 especially in crunch time. When trailing inside the final two minutes, he completed just 9 of 24 passes, converting 3 first downs and throwing an interception without scoring a single touchdown. Through the first 11 games, he attempted 47 passes inside the red zone (the opposing 20-yard line) and scored only 8 touchdowns. He threw 5 of his 8 interceptions on third downs last year.

Fans made note of those chemistry issues all year long when Carr struggles to consistently hit established weapons like Chris Olave, Alvin Kamara, and Juwan Johnson in stride. We all saw him yelling at Olave and his Pro Bowl center Erik McCoy in emotionally-charged moments after bad plays. No matter how you slice it, Carr wasn’t effective enough last year, and he’s facing a ton of scrutiny in 2024.

But there’s some reason for optimism going into 2024. He did improve down the stretch and the Saints had the NFL’s best red zone scoring percentage after they doubled practice reps in that phase late in the 2023 season. They’ve since brought in a new play caller, Klint Kubiak, who installed his own offensive coaching staff. Even if Kubiak is, say, the 23rd-best play caller in the NFL that’s an improvement over Pete Carmichael at 32nd. And rookie right tackle Taliese Fuaga should do a lot to improve the blocking up front, at least on Carr’s right side.

Still, this criticism of Carr is warranted, and he has to earn back the good will he burnt through last year. Saints fans and national media writers need to see his improvement to believe it.

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Drew Brees and Derek Carr team up at Zurich Classic Pro-Am golf tournament

New Orleans Saints quarterbacks Drew Brees and Derek Carr hit the links at the Zurich Classic Pro-Am golf tournament this week:

A couple of New Orleans Saints quarterbacks teamed up at the Zurich Classic Pro-Am golf tournament this week. Saints legend Drew Brees enjoyed an afternoon with his successor Derek Carr at TPC Louisiana, along with tour pros Zach Johnson and Ryan Palmer. Carr has made a point to cultivate a relationship with the team’s best-ever player, and afterwards he shared some insight to what that bond looks like.

“So him and I, early in the offseason I talked to him and picked his brain for a long time. I always feel bad because I know he has kids and all that, I get it. We planned a time, I picked his brain about a million different things,” Carr said of his relationship with Brees. You can find his full interview here.

He continued, “I learned so much from him, it was so valuable. And then today he’s asking questions about how things are going, I’m asking him questions about things he thought versus certain looks. We try not to, we try to have fun, but at the end of the day we can’t help ourselves.”

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Carr. He’s been working to pick up the playbook from new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak while leading throwing sessions with teammates at the Saints practice facility during Phase 1 of their offseason. Anything he can learn from Brees could help him get the Saints where they want to go in 2024.

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Derek Carr shares diplomatic response to Saints draft strategy

Derek Carr declined to share his input on the New Orleans Saints draft strategy. He trusts the front office to find good players:

What will the New Orleans Saints do in the 2024 NFL draft? Everyone has a take, but Derek Carr isn’t going to share his. When given the opportunity to share input on his team’s draft strategy, as Cameron Jordan did on NFL Network, Carr opted to keep his head down and trust the front office to make the right pick.

“I don’t know, but I will say this,” Carr told ESPN’s Katherine Terrell at the Zurich Classic Pro-Am golf tournament. “I know that whoever’s about to show up, they just have to be ready to work. Our team right now is in such a good place, our work ethic, they’re getting after us right now.”

The Saints saw a strong turnout at voluntary workouts two weeks ago, and Carr has been active in leading throwing sessions with teammates at their practice facility. He’s acknowledged that the team wasn’t good enough last year and that fans deserve better results. He’s putting in the work now that will hopefully yield more success later this year.

There’s nothing wrong with Carr declining to call for the Saints to draft one position or player, just like there’s nothing wrong with Jordan seizing that opportunity. Different players, people, and leaders on the team carry themselves and use their influence in different ways. We’re guessing that Carr does have his thoughts on the matter (most teams do tend to check in with their quarterbacks around this time of the year) but that’s something he’s choosing to keep between himself and the Saints front office.

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Derek Carr, Juwan Johnson competing in a national cornhole tournament

Derek Carr and Juwan Johnson are back in competition, but not on the field. They’re in the American Cornhole League’s Superhole tournament:

The American Cornhole League is hosting their fifth annual Superhole event, with the qualifying round of the tournament taking place in New Orleans. Not only is it in the city, Saints starters Derek Carr and Juwan Johnson are participating as well. The incentive for victory starts with a $100,000 cash prize for winning it all.

Johnson and Carr aren’t partners, however. Each will be paired with an ACL pro and will compete against other NFL players. Johnson, paired with Frank Modlin, looks to take down Eric Kendricks. Meanwhile Carr, paired with Trevor Kuhfuss, looks to defeat former Saints first-round draft pick Brandin Cooks. The Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots also have players in the New Orleans qualifying round.

Going through withdrawals from seeing your Saints compete? This is the kind of event that could slightly scratch the itch leading up to the NFL draft. Seeing that it’s in New Orleans you could also call it a home game of sorts. Carr and Johnson’s Superhole qualifying round airs live Saturday, April 20 at 9 p.m. CT on ESPN2.

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