Who Did Derek Carr Sign With?

The Raiders was the home of franchise quarterback Derek Carr for the past nine years. He was up until recently one of the few members of the team which made the move from Oakland Raiders to the Las Vegas Raiders three years ago. Even though he has seen such a momentous change in the organization including the big move to a bigger city, the one thing Derek Carr never saw change in was the improvement in his team.

In Derek Carr, the Raiders had a decent quarterback who had the ability to lead the team to multiple playoff berths and quite possibly even a Super Bowl had the team around him been better. Having said that, his overall win-loss record in a Raiders jersey is a disappointing 63-79 with only two winning seasons and one .500 season.

Turnovers have also had a huge impact on his game as he has led the league on two occasions in fumbles, and fumbles lost. More recently, in the past two years he has also thrown his personal high in interceptions with 14 apiece. By the end of the 2022 season, it was clear that Derek Carr and the newly appointed Raiders’ head coach, Josh McDaniels could not make things work and the time had come to ship Carr out of Las Vegas.

Which team signed Derek Carr

After the 2022 season came to an end, the writing was on the wall as far as Derek Carr’s future with the Raiders was concerned. It was more or less evident that the franchise’s general manager and head coach wanted Carr out of Vegas. Since the team released Carr, he was a free agent and had a couple of viable options available to him. Eventually, Derek Carr decided to sign with the New Orleans Saints.

The three teams that were officially linked with Derek Carr were the Saints, the New York Jets and the Carolina Panthers. The Jets were always looking at Carr as their number two option behind Aaron Rodgers, whereas with the Panthers, they had the option of targeting one of the rookie quarterbacks with a higher draft pick.

Thus, out of those three teams, Carr was the number one guy on the Saints’ mind and in an interview with Derek’s older brother David (a former NFL quarterback himself), he mentioned that the Saints went all out to sign his brother. The Saints organization made sure they got their guy as they provided Derek with a sense of belief that they didn’t want anyone else. The Saints and Carr have agreed terms on a four year deal worth $150 million.

What benefit do the Saints offer Carr?

The Saints are in the NFC South division of the NFL. The three other teams in that division are the Atlanta Falcons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Carolina Panthers. This is a division that is struggling in its entirety as there is no clear team that is better than the rest.

Taking a look at what 2022 provided, the Falcons struggled after getting off to a decent start. They benched their starting quarterback Marcus Mariota and turned their attention to their rookie quarterback Desmond Ridder for the last four games. While three of the four teams in this division finished 7 and 10, the Falcons were in last place.

The Panthers also finished 7 and 10, but placed second in the division with a better divisional record. Therefore, this is also a team in the process of rebuilding and have with them the number one pick of the 2023 NFL draft in Bryce Young. The Buccaneers won this division but with a dismal 9-8 record meaning this is also not a team that has the favorite tag. In addition to this, Tom Brady has retired and so the Bucs have turned their attention to Baker Mayfield as their new signal caller. Mayfield himself has seen his fair share of poor form recently.

That leaves the Saints who also finished 7-10 and in third place on the divisional tie break record. The Saints can provide Carr with a better defense than what the Raiders had. They also have some stars on the offense such as running back Alvin Kamara and wide receiver Chris Olave with whom he can forge a strong partnership. Furthermore, what works well in Carr’s favor is that the Saints do not have any other long term option nor do they have enough capital to sign a top prospect in 2023.

With all that said and done, it looks like the pairing of Derek Carr and the Saints has the capacity to work wonders and a potential playoff spot looks very bright.