Newest Man In The Bayou: Saints InK Carr To Four-Year Deal
ESPN
New Orleans, Louisiana (PSF) - The New Orleans Saints have found their heir apparent to their former long time signal caller and hall of fame quarterback Drew Brees, after signing Derek Carr to a four-year/$150M deal.
Carr, the former Las Vegas Raiders quarterback, has now found himself a new home after a free agency process that involved talks with the Carolina Panthers, New York Jets, and the Saints. For the majority of the time when Carr was available on the free agent market, it looked like he was going to pack his bags and fly across the country to join the New York Jets. However, after signing with the Saints, Carr said New Orleans was his number one destination all along as he chose them over his now divisional rival Carolina Panthers.
Looking at Carr’s new division in the NFC South, it is clear that the Saints are now the favorite to win the division for the next league season after acquiring Carr’s services. Without a doubt, the Saints have the best defense in the division, and now the best quarterback too, and that just might be enough to win it depending on what happens in free agency and the draft. The Buccaneers no longer have Brady, have already gotten rid of key veteran players, and it looks like they are going into full rebuild mode post Brady era. The Panthers have yet another new Head Coach in Frank Reich, a big question mark at quarterback, but do have several key pieces and studs on both sides of the ball. Meanwhile, the Falcons also have questions at quarterback, Head Coach Arthur Smith may very well be on the hot seat if things don’t turn around in year three. They do currently have the second most cap space in the league.
While winning your division is step one in building towards winning a Super Bowl, there still is a lot of skepticism as to whether the Saints are truly Super Bowl contenders now with Carr at the helm. After signing his deal with the Saints, Carr now becomes the 10th highest paid quarterback in the league, only behind Dak Prescott and Daniel Jones in rounding out the top-ten. The question of whether Carr can bring a second Lombardi trophy to New Orleans while being paid like an upper echelon signal caller is still yet to be answered. However, even now with Carr and what looks like to be the best team in the NFC South for next season, right now at this moment the Saints are still not a better team in the NFC than the Philadelphia Eagles, San Fransisco 49ers, Minnesota Vikings, and Dallas Cowboys among others. A lot can still happen between now and the start of next season, but in the same breath the Saints themselves also need to do a lot in order to chase and get to the top of the conference standings. That task will be hard to accomplish when the team is still $25M over the salary cap and needs to use some of that money toward their next rookie draft class in late April.
Looking at the situation that Carr is inheriting, per Pro Football Network the Saints currently have the 17th best offensive line in the league, only two spots higher than his former team in the Raiders who rank 19th. In the backfield, Carr has running back Alvin Kamara who is a star when healthy, but is also facing legal issues that have not been resolved by the league yet. On the outside, Carr’s number one wide receiver will be Chris Olave who is coming off of a very promising rookie season and is someone that many expect will take the leap to the superstar category. Additionally, Carr also has Michael Thomas who was one of the best wide receivers in the league a few years ago, but has now not been able to stay on the field after suffering a toe injury that put him on injured reserve last season. Thomas also finds himself as a likely cap causality after next season with a $59M cap hit next offseason. Other than that, all Carr has is receivers Jarvis Landry, Marquez Callaway, and tight ends Juwan Johnson, Adam Trautman, and Taysom Hill. Carr’s new supporting cast is certainly worse than the one he had with the Raiders to say the least.
Although Carr’s new weaponry is a significant downgrade from the one he had in Vegas, the Saints still provide Carr with what the Raiders never could. An elite defense, as Carr does not have to win every game in a shoot-out like he had to do in the AFC West. An elite front office, a winning culture, and stability with the Benson family and Micky Loomis. While there are doubts about how much better the Saints really are now with Carr in the fold, this is the best overall situation that Carr will be in during his nine-year career thus far.
Only time will tell if the Saints made the right decision in signing Carr instead of deciding to blow it all up and rebuild like the other three teams in their division. For now, the Saints have their guy at footballs most important position for the foreseeable future in hopes of capturing multiple division titles and hopefully a Super Bowl title too.
