Former Raiders quarterback Derek Carr has continued to draw interest from the Carolina Panthers, New York Jets, and the New Orleans Saints. Carr was reportedly scheduled to meet with all three of these franchises during the 2023 NFL Combine, as he continues to explore his options. For the Saints, they met Carr at his hotel along with team owner Gayle Benson.
For the moment, it looks like the Saints are the only team ready to establish a contract with the veteran quarterback. Saints head coach Dennis Allen spoke highly of Carr when speaking with the media this week:
“I think he’s highly competitive, I think he’s highly intelligent, I think he’s got great work ethic, I think he’s an outstanding leader,” Allen said. “Those are all the qualities that I like about him, and those are qualities that we like in the quarterback position. We like the player.”
Allen and Carr share a history together. In 2014, Allen was Carr’s head coach in Oakland during the quarterback’s rookie season. Bringing Carr to NOLA would line up with the recent coaching changes Allen has made up to this point; he’s made it clear that he wants his guys. Carr would be an instant upgrade over Andy Dalton, who didn’t do terrible but certainly didn’t help facilitate any offensive success this year with only 19.4 points per game averaged.
Carr can sign with any team as early as today, if he wanted to. But he’s weighing his options, likely waiting to see who’d be willing to shovel out the highest pay for his services. From his standpoint, it makes sense. This will likely be his last chance to really earn a big time pay in his career; and this is compounded by the fact that the market for a quarterback has reached a new level.
Leave no stone unturned, as they say. That’s a mentality that Saints general manager Mickey Loomis has adopted as well, going into this year’s draft:
“I think unless you’re at the top of the draft, you’re just looking at everyone,” Loomis said. “(But) when you’re late in the draft, or even later rounds, there’s nothing that prevents you from signing a free agent quarterback and drafting one.
“We’re in the business of collecting good players and collecting quarterbacks. For years, I think it was (former Green Bay general manager) Ron Wolf that wanted to draft a quarterback every year and put them in the stable. They either become good players for you or they became assets that you could trade.”
I wonder where Jameis Winston will end up.