We’ve reached the public negotiating phase of Derek Carr’s free agency. The New Orleans Saints the first team to engage with him on his way out with the Las Vegas Raiders, and they’ve kept up a heavy dialogue for weeks as he meets with other teams — but it may have not been enough to seal the deal.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports that Carr “has a slight lean towards” signing with the New York Jets rather than the Saints after considering his options there, as well as in a meeting with the Carolina Panthers (who are better positioned to draft their new quarterback than sign one).
Now, this could simply be posturing on Carr’s part to pressure New Orleans into meeting his reported asking price of $35 million or more per year, or matching an offer from the Jets. Either way, it’s clear that the Saints are not his top choice, or else a deal would’ve already been completed.
But Carr isn’t the Jets’ first choice either. They’re waiting on Aaron Rodgers to come down from whichever mountain he’s summitted to decide whether to retire, green-light a trade to New York, or run it back one last time with the Green Bay Packers. It isn’t an ideal situation for anyone. Hopefully this situation gets resolved sooner rather than later. The Saints have other problems to address when the legal tampering window for unrestricted free agency opens on March 13.
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