Category: Derek Carr

Saints quarterback Derek Carr leaves game after landing hard on a sack

Saints quarterback Derek Carr leaves game vs. Packers after landing hard on a sack, questionable to return with shoulder injury

The New Orleans Saints starting quarterback Derek Carr is shaken up after taking landing hard on the third sack of the game and is helped off the field with the medical staff.

It looked as though Carr’s head hit the ground hard after being brought down by Rashan Gary, but his throwing shoulder hit the ground first. Jameis Winston will warm up and get ready to take the field to close the game as Carr left to the locker room after leaving the medical tent with trainers.

Carr was having a nice start, 13-of-18 passing for 103 yards and a touchdown. Winston and Taysom Hill will be the team’s remaining quarterbacks with Jake Haener serving a suspension. With the lead up to 17 points in the second half, it’s unlikely that the Saints turn to Carr even if he’s able to come back.

FOX Sports sideline reporter Shannon Spake shared an update on the broadcast: “(Carr) is back in the locker room getting X-rays for a shoulder injury. Questionable to return, so they’re taking a look at him right now.”

This is a developing story.

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Saints GM Mickey Loomis impressed after Derek Carr’s first start

Saints GM Mickey Loomis impressed after Derek Carr’s first start, saying the QB ‘made some plays that we haven’t seen made here for a while’

There weren’t many national analysts who were blown away by Derek Carr’s first start with the New Orleans Saints, but general manager Mickey Loomis was pleased by what he saw on Sunday.

Loomis spoke about Carr’s performance on the Saints Coaches Show with WWL Radio this week, where he made time to push back on the narrative that Carr just managed the game. He sees Carr as an asset who elevates the offense more than the quarterbacks who preceded him.

He explained his reasoning: “I mean, he made some plays that we haven’t seen made here for a while. Off-platform throws, plays breaking down, him solving problems. He did a lot of really good things.”

We’ve talked before about Carr’s effectiveness in this game, even if the Saints didn’t score a ton of touchdowns. He posted the highest net passing yards total (accounting for yards lost to sacks) in a win since Drew Brees was running the offense. He’s someone the coaching staff trusts more than Andy Dalton, Jameis Winston, Trevor Siemian, and the other fill-ins to take the field post Brees.

Obviously a 16-15 score isn’t going to wow many people. But the Saints have a good foundation to build off of here. If Carr can continue to efficiently get the ball to his receivers and navigate pressure, they’ll make real strides once the offensive line and running game get up to speed. Having one of the league’s best defenses to lean on certainly helps.

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Saints defense already giving Derek Carr more help than he got from the Raiders

The Saints defense is already giving Derek Carr more help than he ever got from the Raiders. His old team allowed 15 or more points in 91% of his games:

Derek Carr didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard in his first game with the New Orleans Saints, but he did enough to beat the Tennessee Titans 16-15. And he has a lot to thank his defense for in that Week 1 win. The Saints defense is already doing more for Carr than the Las Vegas Raiders ever did.

The Raiders allowed 15 or more points in 130 of Carr’s 143 starts at quarterback, or 91% of his games in silver and black (including the playoffs). Carr’s teams went 10-2 in those dozen games while holding opponents to fewer than 15 points, losing 13-6 to the Chargers in his 2014 rookie year and falling 13-10 to the Steelers in 2022, his very last game with the team. It’s no wonder he left Las Vegas with a career record of 63-80 with such sorry defensive play.

That strong Saints defense was a major selling-point in their recruitment of Carr, so it’s great to see them living up to expectations. They left Week 1 tied for the league lead with 3 interceptions as a team (the New York Jets picked off Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen thrice on Monday night). They also generated 3 sacks and two dozen quarterback pressures, doing their part to help New Orleans end the game with the ball in Carr’s hands. Let’s see if they can keep it up, and if Carr can muster some higher-scoring outputs in his own right.

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Derek Carr owns up to ‘dumb’ decision on Week 1 interception

Derek Carr owned up to a ‘dumb’ decision on his Week 1 interception against the Titans. That’s one throw the Saints QB would like to have back:

Derek Carr knows he didn’t post a perfect passing line in Week 1’s win over the Tennessee Titans. And the New Orleans Saints quarterback knows exactly where he needs to improve. Exercising better judgment in scoring position is a great place to start after he threw an interception deep in Titans territory.

Carr was targeting Juwan Johnson near the Tennessee 10-yard line but placed the ball too far behind him, where the big tight end couldn’t work back to it — but in dangerous position for safety Amani Hooker to step in and take it away.

“I forced it, I was dumb,” Carr shrugged, “I was way too excited, I’ll just be honest with you. I’m making every throw now, I was pissed off, I walked off to the sideline like ‘What are you doing?'”

That blunt explanation led to some laughter in the media room, but Carr acknowledged the gravity of his mistake: “I know it’s funny right now, because we won, it wasn’t funny at the moment, and I took it very seriously. That was just me being stupid.”

Fortunately, the Saints have a defense that can hold its own. Carr threw that interception with 37 seconds left in the first half and the defense responded by sacking Ryan Tannehill to go into halftime. Rookie defensive tackle Bryan Bresee met blitzing linebacker Pete Werner at the quarterback for a stop, and ultimately Carr’s turnover didn’t matter much. But that isn’t something he can take for granted. He’s an experienced passer in this league and he’ll need to protect the ball more carefully moving forwards.

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LOOK: Derek Carr’s Week 1 passing chart from NFL Next Gen Stats

LOOK: Derek Carr’s Week 1 passing chart from NFL Next Gen Stats

These are always a nice reference tool. We’ve got Derek Carr’s first passing chart from NFL Next Gen Stats as a member of the New Orleans Saints, which gives us a great look at where Carr had the most success targeting different areas of the field against the Tennessee Titans defense on Sunday.

We can see that most of Carr’s incompletions happened at the middling distance — including his interception. Of his 10 incomplete passes, four of them occurred when he was targeting 10 to 20 yards downfield. Carr consistently hit his layups within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. And he connected on half of his shots 20 or more yards past the line of scrimmage, which compares well to other veteran quarterbacks around the league.

If Carr can smooth out the miscommunications and off-target throws attacking the middling range, he’ll be a real problem for opposing defenses. He has several run-after-catch threats at his disposal like Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed, and Juwan Johnson. Hitting them in stride and giving them a chance to make a move in space presents more big-play potential to tap into. We’ll check back next week and throughout the season to see how Carr’s trends develop.

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Fans on social media react to Derek Carr’s first win with the Saints

Fans and media on social media reacted to Derek Carr’s first win with the Saints, some drawing parallels to his run with the Raiders:

Fans and media on social media reacted to Derek Carr’s first win with the New Orleans Saints on Sunday after they took down the Tennessee Titans, but not all of the responses were positive. Some observers drew parallels to Carr’s run with the Raiders. Others were just happy to see the black and gold start the year with a win. Here is what they’re saying after the Saints’ 16-15 victory:

WATCH: Derek Carr throws his first touchdown pass as Saints QB

WATCH: Derek Carr throws his first touchdown pass as a New Orleans Saints quarterback

It took him a few tries, but Derek Carr finally scored his first touchdown pass as the New Orleans Saints’ starting quarterback. Carr connected with second-year wide receiver Rashid Shaheed on a beautiful 19-yard lob to his right, giving the Saints a much-needed lead over the Tennessee Titans.

The Saints tried the same passing concept on the previous play, which was an incomplete pass to Keith Kirkwood. But Carr’s placement was more on-target for Shaheed and he was able to hit the speedster in stride for six points.

It was a tough road to get there. Carr saw all five of his previous pass attempts inside Tennessee’s 20-yard fall incomplete. Red zone efficiency was a major criticism for him with the Las Vegas Raiders and this performance didn’t exactly dissuade that notion, but it had to feel cathartic to punch that touchdown in after some early frustrations. Here’s to many more.

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Dennis Allen says Derek Carr, some starters won’t play in preseason Week 3

Dennis Allen says Derek Carr and some starters won’t play in preseason Week 3. Allen won’t be the defensive play caller, either:

The New Orleans Saints aren’t taking any risks in their preseason finale — after Friday’s practice session at the Caesars Superdome, head coach Dennis Allen said that quarterback Derek Carr and several starters will sit out Sunday’s game with the Houston Texans. Allen added that Jameis Winston will start the exhibition game at quarterback, with rookie draft pick Jake Haener rotating in to relieve him.

It’s a smart play. Carr was effective in his lone drive to open the preseason two weeks ago, dicing up the Kansas City Chiefs’ first-string defense and driving a Saints offense that looked like itself for the first time in years. There isn’t anything for him to gain against a Houston Texans squad missing several key contributors with injuries in a game that won’t be reflected in the win-loss column. An untimely injury could derail this team’s season.

So who else could watch this one from the sidelines? The Saints have rested starters like Chris Olave, Michael Thomas, and Ryan Ramczyk recently to preserve them for the regular season, and that’s likely to continue again on Sunday.

One player to watch: Alvin Kamara. The star running back will open the season with a three-week suspension, so the team may want him to get some work early on to stay fresh, as was their approach with former Saints defensive tackle David Onyemata before his 2021 suspension.

Allen highlighted one other change to their preseason game prep — he won’t be on the headset as the defensive play caller. Defensive coordinator Joe Woods will have the mic in this game, giving him an opportunity to try some different things and run the unit himself. Passing-game coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry will call plays offensively again this week, having taken over Pete Carmichael Jr. in their last preseason game with the Los Angeles Chargers. Preseason games are great learning opportunities for the players on the field and the coaches on the sidelines. Hopefully everyone makes the most of it.

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Saints ramping up their use of motion in first preseason game

Derek Carr’s version of the Saints offense used twice as much motion as fans saw from New Orleans a year ago in their first preseason game:

This is a welcome development: NewOrleans.Football’s Brooke Kirchhofer shared a fascinating nugget from Sunday’s preseason game with the Kansas City Chiefs, pointing out that the New Orleans Saints offense used motion on 25.4% of their plays midway through the third quarter.

For context, that’s almost twice as often as they used motion last season. ESPN Stats and Info found the Saints used motion on just 12.8% of their offensive snaps in 2022, which ranked 23rd around the league; the 25.4% figure from Kirchhofer would have ranked 7th-most.

That’s quite a reversal, but it’s a big part of the Saints offense with Derek Carr under center. Getting his receivers in motion before the snap helps disguise the offense’s intentions and gives guys a running start, and it paid off with the first-half offense racking up 220-plus yards of offense against Kansas City.

Some of the best offenses around the league lean hard on motion; units like the Miami Dolphins, Detroit Lions, and San Francisco 49ers ranked high both in points scored and motion. We’ll see if that trend continues further into the preseason and the regular season when game results begin to matter most.

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WATCH: Derek Carr throws his first touchdown pass as a Saints QB

Alvin Kamara? Michael Thomas? Jimmy Graham? Nope, Derek Carr threw his first touchdown pass as a Saints quarterback to Keith Kirkwood:

Now that’s what we like to see: Derek Carr capped his first drive as the New Orleans Saints quarterback with a touchdown pass in Sunday’s preseason game with the Kansas City Chiefs, giving his team an early lead.

But who caught it? Surely one of the fan-favorites like Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas, or Jimmy Graham. Maybe Chris Olave?

Nope. Fifth-year wideout Keith Kirkwood broke loose from the Chiefs defense to catch a too-easy pass from Carr. Kirkwood has quietly made plays throughout training camp, but a big catch like this could do a lot to strengthen his case for a roster spot in the receiving corps. Proving his reliability and helping Carr end drives with red-zone touchdowns like this will go a long way.

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