Saints GM and coach indicate they plan to stick with QB Derek Carr
New Orlean Saints new coach Kellen Moore Kellen Moore, left, and Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, right, smile during an NFL football press conference in Metairie, La. Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis sees 11-year veteran quarterback Derek Carr as “a guy we can win with, and we’re excited about it.”
Loomis made those comments on Wednesday to a small group of New Orleans-based reporters who traveled to Indianapolis for the NFL scouting combine.
Carr has two years remaining on the four-year, $150 million contract that brought him to New Orleans as a free agent in 2023.
He is 14-13 as a starter in two seasons with the Saints, having gone 5-5 during an injury-riddled 2024 campaign. The Saints went 5-12 last season, their worst record since going 3-13 in 2005 — the season before current Denver coach Sean Payton and record-setting QB Drew Brees joined the franchise.
They brought a Super Bowl title to New Orleans in the 2009 season, one of nine seasons in which they made the playoffs during the Payton-Brees era.
Payton retired for a year after the 2021 season and was replaced by his former defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen, who also was the Raiders’ coach when they drafted Carr out of Fresno State in 2014.
Allen was fired in the middle of the 2024 season and replaced on an interim basis by special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi, who also was a finalist for the permanent head coaching position that ultimately went to Kellen Moore, who was the offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
Carr was conspicuously absent from Super Bowl festivities in New Orleans. And when Moore was introduced as the Saints’ coach on Feb. 13, he sounded noncommittal about Carr.
But at the combine on Wednesday, Moore said the Saints “feel fortunate to have Derek.”
“He’s a big-time quarterback in this league,” Moore said.
The Saints are trying to create space under the salary cap for 2025. If Carr’s contract went unchanged, it could count about $51 million against the cap next season, but New Orleans could convert some of Carr’s salary into bonus money that, for accounting purposes, could be prorated over multiple years — if the QB agrees.
“His is a big number,” Loomis said of Carr’s contract. “So, we’re going to hopefully be able to maneuver.”
Carr completed 67.7% of his passes last season for 2,145 yards with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions. He was sacked eight times.
Carr missed three games in then middle of the season because of an oblique injury. A subsequent concussion and broken left hand sidelined him for the season’s final four game.
New Orleans did not win a game started by either of Carr’s backups, rookie Spencer Rattler or second-year pro Jake Haener.
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