The New Orleans Saints will start Spencer Rattler, not Derek Carr, in Week 18’s regular season finale against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers due to the quarterback’s injury, interim head coach Darren Rizzi announced Friday. Carr attempted a game simulation at practice this week but wasn’t able to functionally grip the football after fracturing his left hand several weeks ago.
And Rizzi pointed out that this is a big loss for the team when asked how significant Carr’s loss was for the team: “It’s a huge impact. The obvious answer is we haven’t a game he hasn’t started. We were 5-5 with him as our starting quarterback and we haven’t won a game without him as our starting quarterback. So the results there are pretty telling and tangible.”
The next question will be whether Carr returns to the team in 2025. The Saints already lead the league in dead money taken up by players no longer on the team next season, and cutting Carr would double it. He controls his own destiny to an extent thanks to the no-trade clause his agent negotiated into his contract. Whether or not the Saints will keep Carr is sure to be a big topic of discussion this offseason and it may impact their interviews with head coach candidates in the weeks ahead.
Carr hasn’t delivered on the expectations that general manager Mickey Loomis and ex-head coach Dennis Allen set when they signed him to a four-year, $150 million contract two years ago. He’s gone 14-13 as a starter and missed a lot of time with injuries. A new head coach may want to go in a new direction at quarterback — justifiably. Either way, we’ve seen the last of Carr in the 2024 season. We’ll just have to wait and find out whether he’ll return for 2025.
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