By Ross Jackson
The truth hurts sometimes. And while a player having to retire for medical purposes is always tough to see, the truth is that former New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr will not be fondly remembered by fans for his time in the Big Easy.
Outside of a Michael Jackson-inspired touchdown celebration, Carr is among the team’s worst free agent additions in its history. To some, his deal was the worst by far.
Carr signed on for a four-year, $150 million agreement. Out of the possible 68 regular season games he could have played, his time was cut in half, and he only appeared in 27 yielding a 14-13 record.
When Carr arrived in New Orleans, he spent a lot of time shading himself in what he would not be.
“I am no savior,” he said at his introductory press conference. “There’s only been one of those, and that is not me. I am here to be a great leader and to be a great teammate and to do my job to the best of my ability. And do I feel confident in what I can do? Absolutely, I feel confident in what I can do. I feel confident in what I can bring to our team. And that’s exciting, right? But to save us or anything like that, that’s not me.”
Indeed it was not. Carr pitched 40 touchdowns to just 13 interceptions over his two-year stint with the Saints. As a one-year total, that would be impressive. However, split over 27 games and two years, Carr just didn’t deliver the production and results that were expected of his contract.
The quarterback was always going to have big shoes to fill. Every signal caller to wear a Saints jersey for the foreseeable future will. But yelling at teammates on the field, shouting at coaches and passing the buck to other players created an even starker contrast to the legend of Drew Brees for the city of New Orleans.
Carr quickly started off with what he wasn’t and then couldn’t win anyone over with what he turned out to be.
There’s no taking away from him that he gave what he had when he was in the field, all the way down to the ill-advised second-and-10 leap that may now be his final NFL play.
This was Derek Carr’s last snap of football ever pic.twitter.com/mjDwNDWGYr
— Trizzy Trace (@tracegirouard48) May 10, 2025
But Carr will mostly be remembered by Saints fans for extending the team’s playoff drought to four years, a lack of accountability and seemingly fleeing the city at his earliest opportunity. He departed in such haste that he and new head coach Kellen Moore never met in person.
The last legacy a player wants to leave behind is fan excitement for the competition boiling behind him. But it’s fair to say that Carr’s departure has inspired more intrigue about what’s next than grief over what’s lost.
